Date A Live: Samanya's story
by Kurukaze
Summary: Meet Samanya Greenson! Ratatoskr's blue haired genius and Shido's personal bodyguard! Watch as Sam and Shido learn to rely on each other during their bid to save the spirits and learn to trust each other during everything else. But, unknown even to herself, Sam has a dark secret that no-one wants to uncover. Will she ever reveal the truth? Find out by reading on!
1. Brief encounter

===DAL, Samanya's story===

-Short disclaimers because they didn't really fit in the summary: 1: I highly recommend watching DAL and DAL2 as I will be skimming details that don't include the new MC. 2: I'm mostly going off of the anime because the manga isn't translated, if there are some extra details in the manga that would benefit me putting them in, please let me know. 3: Any and all criticism is welcome, this is my first time writing anything like this so any feedback is appreciated...-

-Chapter 1

A massive spacial quake erupted within the city of Tenguu. Buildings, roads and signs were torn from their place entirely and transported to a realm outside of our own. In the centre of the newly-formed crater stood a girl with long purple hair and clad in a purple and yellow armour, with flowing pink trails emanating from her gauntlets, chest piece and armoured skirt. The trails gave off a faint glow as they moved with the gentle breeze, and her hair lay down her back and sides, almost to her waist.

On the edge of the crater sat a dark-blue haired teenage boy in his high-school's uniform. Well, 'sat' might be the wrong word, more like: 'thrown onto his back by the force of the spacial quake and was currently in the process of getting up'. The blue-haired boy's name was, if Samanya was remembering her mission brief correctly in all of the 20 seconds she had to analyse it, Shido, who was currently staring at the purple-haired girl in awe.

"So, I take it you've come to kill me too." Said the purple-haired girl, somewhere between a question and a statement and lined with a hint of sadness.

"Wh-What?" Shido replied.

"Don't play games with me, human." The girl said, "The only reason you're here would be to kill me." She turned to face Shido, and he could see the sadness painted across her face.

"No, you've got it all wrong, I'm looking for my sister. I could never hurt anybody!" He stated, the look on the purple-haired girl's face sparking a sudden feeling of anger within him.

"Don't lie to me!" The girl shouted.

The ground exploded once more, the shock wave emanating from the purple-haired girl and Shido was thrown back several more feet until he fell on to the hard concrete once more; his right side taking the impact. When he looked up again at the girl, he was met with the tip of a large broadsword, inches from his nose and glowing softly, not too dis-similarly from the pink trails of her armour.

The girl stared at him with cold eyes, her mouth formed a tight frown and her brow, while slightly creased in anger, was soft.

"Why do you look so... Sad?" He softly asked.

The question caught the girl off-guard, but before she could answer the ground erupted under the force of a missile and a large plume of fire sprouted from behind her. She turned around, her back to the shaken Shido, and located her attacker; the barrel of the weapon still smoking. The girl sprinted without a word towards the new threat, beams of energy being thrust forward from her glowing sword as she closed the gap.

The girl and her attacker clashed. The glowing pink of the purple-haired girl's broadsword struck the pale blue of the attacker's energy sword. Shido recognised the attacker as Origami Tobiichi, a white-haired, supposedly top-of-the-class, girl in his homeroom. The sudden sight of her confused him even more.

"Origami?" He quickly asked, not quite believing what he was seeing.

"Shido!" Origami replied, equally confused.

As Shido took in Origami's futuristic armour and weaponry, he asked, "What's up with those clothes?"

Origami Tobiichi never got the chance to respond as the purple-haired girl leapt towards her once more, and swung her broadsword down only to meet a parrying blow from Origami.

"Sam, intervene now!" Shouted a man's voice down Samanya's headset.

"Affirmative." She quickly replied, and took off towards Shido from behind a nearby building that had partially collapsed, travelling far too fast for an un-aided human, her legs leaving the ground as she sped towards him under the force of her 'wings', the small thrusters glowing blue as she propelled herself forwards. Through her visor she could see him, still staring at the purple-haired girl as she slashed with her broadsword, arcs of pink energy leaping out at Origami, and grabbed him mid-flight as more explosions sounded around them.

"I've got him!" Samanya shouted into her headset, hoping that her voice would be heard over the ongoing battle.

"Ping received, retrieval started." Spoke the man in her ear once more.

As a brilliant beam of light from above engulfed both Sam and Shido, he looked back once more at the purple-haired girl as she looked towards him, Origami retreating back to her team, and saw an expression that would stay with him forever.

 _"If you're so strong, why do you look so sad?"_ He thought, but the question remained unsaid as the beam around him solidified, and his vision changed to a brilliant white.


	2. Shido, Spirits and the AST

-Disclaimer: For those of you who've already read this, then all I've done is slightly altered some dialogue to better fit the pacing and progression.

-Chapter 2

"Kotori?"

Shido's incredulous voice bounced down the hall to where Samanya was walking. She was making her way towards the bridge, admiring the spotless metal walls, floor and ceiling when his voice caused her to pause mid-stride.

"Wait until you hear what you've got to do next..." She muttered to herself, chuckling softly afterwards. She cast her mind back to that briefing she had with Kotori while Shido was recovering...

 _"What?" Samanya asked, her breath caught in her throat as she failed to understand what Kotori had just told her._

 _"It's like I already said:" Kotori replied, her bossy tone more-than-present when she spoke, "All that Shido has to do is make the spirits fall in love with him, it's the only way to seal their power without... Y'know, killing them."_

 _"But-" Samanya began._

 _"'But' nothing!" Kotori snapped. "It's the only way to stop the spacial quakes without harming the spirits. If there was another way, don't you think we would have already found it?"_

 _Samanya had no answer for that one. She sighed, took a step back and lowered her head, "You're right." She muttered. Kotori's expression softened and her mouth formed a wide grin. "Ok then, if this is the only way... What's my mission, Commander?"_

Samanya snapped out of her day-dream when she was met by the bulkhead door that guarded the entrance to the bridge. She punched the code into the glowing keypad and was greeted with a soft pneumatic hiss and the ship's vast bridge; a wide display on the far wall; the glowing monitors perched on desks that ran along the sides; the commander's chair up and to the left of her and the Commander sitting atop it, waving a pink lollipop at Shido. Samanya also noticed that she was the last to arrive.

Samanya quickly stood to attention. "Field operative Greenson reporting for duty." She stated along with a clipped salute.

"Ah, Samanya. Good to see you again." Samanya was surprised that Kannazuke had greeted her first, before anybody else in the room. It was his voice that she had heard down her headset.

"Vice Commander Kannazuke!" She responded, "Would you like my report now or later?" After every mission, big or small, Sam was required to file a report and deliver it to him.

"Later, Sam." Kannazuke quickly dismissed the offer and allowed her to stand at ease.

"Very well, Vice Commander." Sensing that their conversation was over, Sam turned towards the smug-looking Kotori, the confused-as-ever Shido and the barely-awake Reine as Kannazuke walked back over to one of the computers.

"Ah, and here's your bodyguard." Kotori said as a way of greeting. Sam strode up the steps, the metal boots of her combat suit causing a reverberating 'clang' with every step. "Shido, meet Samanya Greenson. Sam, meet my stupid big brother, Shido Itsuka."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Shido." She extended her hand towards his with a warm smile.

Shido met Sam's hand with his own and tentatively shook it, "Yeah, you too..."

"Wait! Why do I need a bodyguard? What is this place? Who are these people? You still haven't told me what's going on!" Shido exclaimed; running his hands through his hair and exhaling loudly.

Sam looked towards Kotori and met her gaze, _"You haven't told him yet?"_ Sam thought.

Kotori seemed to read her mind when she said, "One sec."

The screen on the far wall quickly changed from displaying complex-looking graphs and charts, to a video of the purple-haired girl standing in the crater. Flame-like purple energy sparked and faded around her, giving her an incredible aura that was only matched by the hard look in her deep eyes. Kannazuke (Who had gone back to the computer in order to change the display) started to stride back to the group as Kotori began her explanation to Shido.

"This thing is a monster called a spirit," Kotori began, "It was lost not long ago. That means it disappeared." The last sentence added for Shido's benefit. "And this is what we call a-"

"Wait will you shut up for a second?" Shido interrupted, clearly lost as to what was going on.

Kotori replied in-passionately, "Don't be rude. The Commander is taking the time to explain everything to you, personally. You should be on your knees, bowing in gratitude."

Shido looked at her little sister with an expression somewhere between disgust and disbelief

"If you want, I certainly wouldn't mind letting you lick my boots while you're down there."

"What? Really, I can?" Kannazuke's interruption was met with a swift blow to the stomach and a tumbling roll as he fell down the steps, almost taking Samanya out as he went. "Oh yeah! Thank you for that, Commander." He said, slightly winded from the punch.

"And uhhh, you ARE Kotori?" Shido continued.

"Of course! Have you forgotten what my face looks like, Shido?" Replied an irritant Kotori.

"No!" He exclaimed, "It's just, you're not acting... Normal."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, this morning you were my little sister Kotori and now you're acting all high-and-mighty and talking about some stuff that I don't even slightly understand!"

Kotori sighed, "Quit freaking; I'll explain the specifics to you later. But first, you need to remember the three things I'm about to say: 1. That girl is a spirit, and she doesn't belong in this world. Simply appearing causes everything to blow up, whether she wants it to or not."

"Blow up..?"

"You know those things we call spacial quakes, Shido?"

A subtle nod from him.

"Well spirits just like THAT girl down there are the ones responsible for them."

 _"How could one girl do all that?"_ Shido thought.

"Ready for '2'?" Kotori asked, and then swiftly proceeded without waiting for an answer. "This is the Ground Force's Anti Spirit Team, or 'AST' for short. When a spirit appears, they're sent to engage the spirit and kill it." Kotori's voice was unnaturally flat for those last few words, Samanya noticed, and she had no doubt that Shido noticed as well.

"What? Kill it?" Shido asked, triggering a flashback of the short conversation he had with the 'spirit'...

 _"So, I take it you've come to kill me too."_

"And now for '3'. There is another way to deal with the spirits-"

Samanya sighed quietly as she knew all-too-well where this was going.

"-Without having to rely on the AST. This is where you come in." Kotori finished while executing a lollipop-armed point at Shido.

"Me? How?" The familiar incredulous tone lining Shido's voice, which had become common during this entire conversation.

"We'll have to make sure you start training tomorrow." Came her response. Shido felt that that didn't answer his question, and he was right. "I'll leave the rest of the details to those in charge of your development, in the meantime just go back to school like nothing happened."

"Hang on a sec sis! Why would you train me? What's this 'other way'? What are you planning on putting me through if I need a BODYGUARD?"

Samanya giggled softly at that last question.

Kotori slammed her foot down in frustration. Kannazuke (who the foot had clearly been aimed for) fell backwards down the steps and landed with a heavy thump once more.

"Look, Shido! You can reject if you want, but then the spirits will just be hunted down and killed by the AST! So if you want to save them..." Kotori looked hard at her brother,

"You don't have a choice."

Shido cast himself back to that moment. That moment when the look on a girl that he'd never met before's face sparked a feeling within him. The feeling being so loud and intense, that he'd be damned if he was just going to sit around and not answer the purple-haired girl's silent, desperate plea.

"I'll do it." Shido stated. His eyes burning with something that pierced Samanya's soul.

Something that she wouldn't be able to describe at the time, but something that she would eventually look back on and call:

Shido's unwavering courage.


	3. Samanya's past

-Chapter 3

Shido was kept mostly in-the-dark after that initial briefing, Reine and Sam joined the school the next day as a teacher and a student respectively in order to keep a better eye on him. Shido's training started, Kotori and Reine taking him through the dating sim, while Sam and Kannazuke took him through the details of Ratatoskr, the Fraxinus and his bodyguard. As well as some other important details.

-Eight days later-

"Hey Shido!" A mess of teal-coloured hair poked over one of the tables of Sam's workshop. (Technically it was the Fraxinus' workshop, but since Sam was really the only person who was down there she had dubbed it her own.)"What's up?"

Shido continued to survey the workshop. The walls, ceiling and floor were identical to the rest of the ship, but it was what was strewn around the room that made him ignore Sam's greeting: Machinery that he had never even seen before next to common saws; Plates of metal, glass and other substances that he couldn't begin to name lay moulded into shapes. And blueprints. So many blueprints! Shido ignored the question for a second longer as he noticed an incredible blue light encapsulated in water and glass in the far corner.

"Shido..?"

"Oh, right!" Shido started, broken out of his trance. "Kotori told me to come down here. She said she wanted us to talk, and to get to know and trust each other."

"Hmmm, if that's what the Commander wants, then I suppose we don't have a choice, eh?" Samanya stood fully up, all 5"7 of her. She removed the visor she had over her eyes, and Shido saw a pair of green eyes look back at him as she wandered around to his side of the table. "Sorry for the mess by the way... It's normally tidier."

"I hadn't even noticed." Shido replied with a polite smile.

Samanya smiled back. "So, Shido. Let's start with you, gimme the whole story." She said as she sat down on the table while brushing off her dirty overalls. Shido couldn't help but notice her skin that, while already a pale colour, seemed almost drained. Her eyes, while bright, were also tired-looking. Her manner hinted at someone who had been working hard for days-on-end.

He also saw just how unassuming her frame really was. She wasn't muscular or stocky. She seemed incredibly average. No, less-than-average.

"Sure." Shido sat down next to her and explained everything that he could remember. His social life, his sister, their parents, how he had lost his memory five years ago. Everything. Samanya was patient throughout, listening intently like a student in a lesson she rather enjoyed. Shido also learned to relax as they talked. His first impression had been of a rigid, tough, unfriendly type. A soldier through-and-through. As they talked however, he learnt that she was no different to him, and he wondered how she had ended up here, with him.

"So, I'm assuming you want my story now?"

A nod.

"Ok," Samanya started. "It all began back in the UK, where I was born."

"The UK?" Shido politely interrupted.

"Yes, that's where I was born, it's also where I spent most of my life, not here in Japan. You may have noticed an accent." He _had_ noticed an accent from her, a soft and quite well-hidden accent, but he had still noticed it. "Anyway, ever since I was about twelve I always wanted to live in Japan. My life was becoming more and more influenced by Japanese culture, or at least, the Japanese culture that actually made it over to the west."

In Samanya's mind, the walls around her shifted into the walls of her bedroom, back in the little flat her parents had in the sprawling city of London. Posters of Anime, J-pop bands and Japanese video games lined her walls. Her bookshelf contained various Light Novels and manga, with the odd book dotted between. On her desk in the corner, beneath which stood a large desktop PC with her two monitors displaying her desktop background (a picture of Hatsune Miku), Stood many figures and figurines. Her favourite being a 1/512 scale replica of the Japanese warship "Yamato", which she bought after watching the classic seventies anime "Space Battleship Yamato".

"I had started to learn Japanese around that time, and by my fourteenth birthday I was pretty fluent. So when my parents told me that we were going to Japan for a week... I was about as ecstatic as it gets." Samanya chuckled at the memory; Her fourteen year old self literally bouncing with excitement as she packed her suitcase.

The mood suddenly fell. "I didn't know it then, but that would be the last birthday I shared with my parents..."

Shido stared at Sam. Unable to speak. _"She lost her parents at fourteen?"_ He asked himself.

"While we were in Japan, a spacial quake hit where we were staying. It was the first one that anyone had seen for years." Sam continued. "My parents got out fine, but I barely made it out alive. My parents they took me to a hospital immediately, and that's when it happened..."

Sam choked on the memory. Shido tentatively slid closer to her, and she rested her head against his arm as she went on. "The hospital caught fire that night. The news said there were no survivors. And that's when Ratatoskr saved me. Ratatoskr was much smaller back then, and in desperate need of young personnel now that spacial quakes were returning, so they chose me."

"But, did Ratatoskr know what was causing the spacial quakes? Did they know about the spirits?" Shido asked.

"From what I've been told, they did. They studied the old ones from 30 or so years ago, and found out that way. But that's just what I've been told."

"Why did they chose you and no-one else?"

Samanya sighed as she continued with her story. "I would later be told that I was the perfect candidate. I had just lost my parents, I was in a situation where my death could be easily faked, I was always introverted and lonely so I had no-one to miss and no-one to miss me. I was intelligent, but I just didn't know how to apply it. I was 'perfect', according to them."

"So Ratatoskr _abducted_ you?" Shido queried.

"I guess you could put it like that." Sam answered, "But I didn't really have a choice. If I refused their help I would have died in the fire too."

Shido didn't really know how to respond. They saved her life sure, but, they abducted her? He couldn't decide where he stood on that.

"After that, I began my own training. I picked Japanese up pretty quickly, and I studied as an engineer under Ratatoskr for 4 years. I designed some of what you'll see on the Fraxinus, and of course, my combat suit."

They both looked towards the suit where it was fastened to the wall. It looked somewhat similar to the AST's suits, but with a lot of notable differences. First, almost everything was covered. The long metal boots rose all the way to the knee, met a jointed knee-guard, and continued upwards to protect the user's legs. The fibre gloves met a metal gauntlet, a jointed elbow-guard, and continued to cover the entirety of the user's arms before ending at a relatively sleek right shoulder-guard, and a bulky left shoulder-guard. The torso pieces were jointed, with a large breastplate being joined to other smaller pieces around the stomach area by the same woven fibre as the gloves. The back was even more complicated, with many long and thin plates running down the spine. These were joined with the fibre and it allowed the user to maintain full flexibility while keeping a moderately-high degree of protection. Up the sides of the torso was just fibre, as it was too dangerous to incorporate metal plates into this part of the design. The only part that wasn't covered was the head. Instead of a helmet, the user wore a reinforced glass visor that wrapped around from ear to ear. Covering the eyes and nose with a glass chevron, and covering the ears and temple with metal over-ear earpieces. From these earpieces protruded a metal band that wrapped around the back of the head, and served to keep the visor in-place during combat. The metal portion of the suit was painted a hot-rod red, while the fibre was a bright white. "I'll talk you through the suit a bit later, if you want."

"Yeah sure, but there's something I don't get." Shido said, only to be met with a puzzled look from Sam. "How come _you_ use it? Why don't they get someone specifically trained to use these things?"

Samanya got what he was saying immediately: Why use an engineer who has had no prior training to protect Ratatoskr's most valuable asset? Why not recruit and train someone specific for the job? "Well, I think it's due to the fact that I designed it solely on my own, to my specifications. You see, I never actively put my design forward. Kotori just found it about 8 months ago and presented it to the top. They said they liked it; Kotori pulled some strings. Bam! I turn up one day and I'm put through combat training using my own suit."

"Why didn't they design a new one?"

"It had taken me about a year to design and every single variable involved was suited to me. So in order to re-design it, they'd have to do a lot of maths and a lot of unnecsessary work. So they just used what they had, and here I am." Sam figured that would satisfy Shido and, considering he didn't press anymore, she figured correctly.

"So that's everything then?" Shido asked.

"Yep, that's everything." Sam replied.

"Do you ever miss home?"

While Sam had asked herself that many times, hearing it out loud caused her to pause. She lifted her head away from Shido and sat up straight. "I guess I do, but I know I can't go back. That 'Samanya Greenson' died in a fire when she was fourteen, and that's all there is to it."


	4. Tohka

-Disclaimer time! Now, this is by far the longest chapter and I had a lot of fun writing it. I found that the following scenes were actually rather flexible and allowed me to work some new minor story beats into it. However, there is probably a lot that I've overlooked, or just gotten wrong in this chapter, so please feel free to point them out, no matter how small. This chapter is also going to be followed up with some sketches (soon) of Sam's armour, so you can get a better picture of it because I suck at describing things. Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy Date A Live: Samanya's story Chapter 4- "Tohka".

-Chapter 4

Shido watched Sam train the next day. Kotori was there too, and they both observed Sam as she did incredibly fast maneuvers while dodging simulated fire. She swooped forwards under another stream of simulated bullets as the small thrusters in her calves and forearms were pushed to their limits. The wings of the suit were incredibly designed. They almost looked like the wings of a dragon; A jointed shaft of metal about a meter or so long coming from her back, with three flat shafts protruding from the wings at regular intervals, and were pointed downwards. These flatter shafts acted as the main boosters, and could work independently for extremely accurate hovering, or all together for extremely fast flight. And of course, it was all painted that same red. Something else that Shido hadn't noticed while it was powered-down was the intricate blue lines that snaked up and down the entire suit like veins.

The left shoulder-guard opened and revealed a tube about fifty centimetres long, painted the same white as the fibre. It moved into position on Sam's shoulder and pointed wherever she looked. An enemy appeared to her left and charged her down with a glowing sword, but Sam simply jumped backwards and fired the gun. The tube glowed incredibly brightly before letting off an equally incredible boom that would have deafened Sam if she hadn't been wearing her visor and the figure exploded into blue sparks as a tiny metal projectile collided with it at mach 31 speeds.

"That'll do Sam!" Shouted Kotori down her microphone. Sam turned around and looked up at Shido and Kotori, standing behind thick perspex.

"Whoa, that was amazing!" Shido cheered, clearly in awe at the impressive performance.

"Wait until you see her go for broke." Kotori plainly said.

Sam appeared through a door behind them, her metal boots loudly sounding her arrival. "Hey Shido!" She exclaimed. "I didn't bore you did I?"

Shido laughed as he said, "No, you didn't bore me." He looked at Sam as she removed her visor. There was more he wanted to ask, but it would have to wait.

-One day later-

"Shido! Get back to the Fraxinus for retrieval!" Kotori commanded.

"Does he have a beacon?" Samanya asked.

"Yeah, we gave him one. You don't have to go swooping in to grab him anymore."

"That's a relief." Shido said between breaths.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Protested Sam. Shido laughed as he sprinted away from the rest of his class. No doubt he was going to be questioned by them later, but he had to hide somewhere so the Fraxinus could retrieve him.

"Alright people!" Sam shouted. "Let's get this show-on-the-road!" She didn't technically say that last part, but it was the closest phrase in the English language to what she had actually said in Japanese.

Kotori smiled. "That's the spirit! Kannazuke, where's the spacial quake?"

Sam wondered if that pun was intentional considering the circumstance.

"Right on top of him!" Kannazuke replied. "It's happening at the school!"

"Perfect." Kotori said smugly...

-Later-

Sam and Shido were placed outside the school. Shido looked up at the ruins that were once his school and surveyed the damage as Samanya slid her visor over her eyes and got down into a lowered stance.

"OK, this is a brilliant opportunity." Kotori stated. "The spirit is inside the building, and the AST CR units aren't built for indoor combat so they should keep their distance for now. Take this chance and move in!" Samanya nodded and followed Shido as they moved inside the building.

Sam put a hand on Shido's shoulder as they entered through the main entrance. "Let me go first." She said.

"OK." Came Shido's simple reply.

"Kotori, do we know where the spirit is?" Sam asked down her headset.

She heard a muffled shout over her headset in response. She was fairly sure it contained the words: 'Kannazuke' and 'spirit'.

"Right, Princess is in your homeroom Shido."

Shido almost laughed in response. _"Of all the places..."_ He thought.

"You got it. We're heading there now." Sam plainly stated. They moved towards the room; Samanya in front with Shido right behind her. They stopped at the door when Kotori shouted (again) down their earpieces. "Wait! Shido, you go in first. Sam, wait outside for a moment until I tell you to go in."

At first Sam was confused, whereas Shido got it instantly. "The spirit's already met me, remember? Seeing me first instead of someone who _actually_ looks like the people trying to kill her might be a good thing." Shido whispered.

Sam's cheeks went faintly red and she silently nodded. As Sam simply stepped aside, Shido passed her and entered the room to meet the spirit once more and from where Sam remained she could make out the conversation clearly.

After a short few moments of them talking, Kotori intervened, "Wait Shido! Don't answer yet!"

Sam sighed softly. "Come on Shido. Now is not the time to forget your training."

"Shut up!" Came Shido's hushed reply.

Sam waited for a few seconds longer while the crew figured out what option to take.

"Ok Shido, repeat after me..." Kotori again.

"When asking for someone's name, you should really give your own first!" They said in unison.

Wrong answer.

The room shook as the spirit released a shock-wave that threw Shido into the wall. Sam bolted through the door and came face-to-face with the spirit, wearing the same armour that she always wore. The spirit's finger glowed with a convulsing purple energy as she acknowledged Sam.

"Wait! We're not here to hurt you!" Sam shouted. But the spirit ignored her. No doubt in her mind that this new metal person was here to kill her. She launched forward, giving Sam only enough time to get her arms up and protect her face but the punch still hit hard, and threw her off-balance. Now on the back foot, Sam jumped backwards as the spirit quickly summoned her broadsword and attempted to deal another blow. The swing fell short but she used the momentum of the swing to come around for another strike.

"Hey! My name is Shido Itsuka! We've met before!" Shido shouted down the hall as Sam continued to retreat. The spirit momentarily looked back and recognised him. She turned towards Sam once more.

"I'm not here to hurt you either! We just want to help!" Reassured Sam.

"You're lying! All humans want is to kill me! I've never done anything to them, but they all want me dead anyway!" The spirit cried out.

"That's not true!" Shido shouted once more, now walking down the hall to where the spirit stood. Sam slowly eased her stance to a more open one. She hoped that would make her seem less aggressive.

"Why are you here then?" The spirit demanded.

"Don't answer!" Kotori interrupted.

There was an awkward few moments of silence while the crew decided on an option.

"I'm here, because I wanted to meet you." Shido said softly.

"To meet me? Why would you want that?" The spirit asked, slightly less harshly.

"Because..." Shido swallowed hard. "I'm interested in you."

The spirit was taken aback. She looked towards Sam.

"I'm here to help you, and protect you. No matter the cost." Came Sam's answer, doing her best to talk calmly.

The spirit took a moment to think. The blue haired human to her left said something that she didn't fully comprehend, and the metal human to her right that looked worryingly like the others had said something that she didn't know whether or not to believe. She ran her hands through her hair in frustration. She decided to ask the blue haired huma-. She paused. She decided to ask 'Shido' what he meant when he said that he was interested in her. "What do you mean, Shido?"

Shido was surprised that the spirit had used his name, and replied before the Fraxinus could interrupt, "I want you to see this world for what it really is. Not the horror that you think it is, but rather the beauty that surrounds you! I want to get to know you, and for you to get to know me!"

Samanya (as well as the rest of the crew) was equally surprised by Shido's sudden poetic nature.

"Why should I believe you?" The spirit snapped.

"Because I heard your plea when we first met and-"

"Shido! Stop!" Kotori warned.

"-I'll never let you down!" Shido finished.

The spirit was speechless. She turned towards Sam, and was met with a subtle nod. "I-! You-!" The spirit gasped. She could feel her heartbeat drumming in her ears. Her veins and arteries pumping with such intensity that she was worried they would burst as she struggled to form words.

In the end, she scratched at her head again. "You big, stupid, dummy! As if anyone would fall for your stupid tricks."

"What? But that was from the heart!" Shido replied, slightly hurt.

"And you!" She pointed towards Samanya. "I don't think I need protecting." She huffed.

"heh..." Sam didn't really know how to answer.

"Oh well. It doesn't matter." The spirit said. "You ARE the only humans I've ever had a normal conversation with, and you know this world better than I do. It could serve me well." Princess thought about it for a little while longer. "Yep, it's settled. This should prove your usefulness."

Everyone present, except Princess and including the crew in the Fraxinus, let out a breath that they didn't realised they were holding.

Shido spoke first, "So, what's your name?"

"A name? I've never been given one." Princess solemnly replied.

"You don't have a name?"

"No, but I suppose I will need one if I am to learn more about your world." Princess stood in silence for a while, thinking. "I know! Why don't you come up with something you can call me?"

"Oh boy. She's really putting the Fraxinus to work, isn't she?" Kotori sighed. "Alright people! We need a name on the double! Call in the troops!"

Thousands of names began to pour in. As the wide display filled up with more and more names, both from the crew on-board and the many users of Ratatoskr's own dating sim, Kotori either permited or dismissed them while hoping to spot a good one.

"I'm waiting." Princess said impatiently.

"I'm sorry. I'm trying to think of a good one." Shido quickly responded.

"Shido! Go with 'Tome'(Toe-may)." Kotori said.

"Tome. Tome sounds nice, right?" Shido asked.

"Don't think I don't know when someone is playing games with me, human!" Princess shouted.

"Yeah... I kinda saw that coming." Shido said to himself.

"How about 'Amy'?" Butted in Sam.

Princess turned to look at Sam with a softer expression, but she still wasn't happy.

"Ok, Ok. Not 'Amy'."

"How about... 'Tohka'!" Shido put forward.

A reaction. A positive one at that. "Tohka... Tohka. Tohka!" Princess repeated, as if saying it out loud would effect her opinion of it. "I like it!" She chirped.

"Nice one, Shido." Sam said.

Tohka looked towards Sam once more, grinning widely. It was the first time Sam had seen the spiri-. Sam stopped her train of thought. It was the first time Sam had ever seen Tohka look so happy.

"Now I have a name. I think I like it a lot!" Tohka exclaimed. She turned back towards Shido. "How do you write it?"

"Follow me, and I'll show you." Shido beckoned while turning around.

As Tohka began to follow, Sam took off her visor, and folded her wings down against her back. She was trying to look friendly (Well, as friendly as one can look whilst wearing a powered combat armour that exceeded two hundred pounds in weight). Tohka re-entered Shido's homeroom as he wrote 'Tohka' (in Japanese, of course) on the blackboard.

"That's how it is written?" Tohka asked plainly.

Shido answered with a simple nod as Tohka stepped towards the board. The same energy that Sam had seen earlier appeared at the tip of her finger, but was more finely concentrated. Tohka burned her name into the blackboard itself, with incredible accuracy, and once she was done she stepped back and admired her new name. She turned towards Sam and Shido, who were standing next to each other by the doorway and opened her mouth to speak, but was unable to say anything before the entire building shook and cracked.

Sam instinctively threw herself into harm's way to protect Shido, but realised as soon as the dust settled that they were all unharmed as a pink force field had appeared around the three of them moments before the strike, which protected them all.

"You two, get out of here!" Tohka shouted. "I'll hold them off! I'd love to continue our conversation, but I'd hate if anything were to happen to you!"

Sam and Shido looked at each other, and nodded. "We're staying right here!" They shouted.

"What?" Asked a confused Tohka.

"You wanted to know more about our world didn't you? So come on, sit down and talk. Pretend that they're not even there." Shido said. By this point, Sam had opened her wings and replaced her visor. The white tube appeared from her right shoulder and moved into position, while Sam herself grabbed a rifle that was attached to her right thigh. Shido hadn't seen her use it yet, and it was no doubt based off of some existing gun but he had no idea which one.

Sam seemed ready and almost eager to get into a scrap, but Tohka stopped her. "If we're going to talk, I'd like for us to all talk together, if that's OK."

Sam looked back at Tohka, "Yeah, of course." She stood down once more as Tohka strengthened the force field around them.

Shido sat down and called for Tohka to do the same. Sam stayed stood up as the AST continued to fire at the force field and even the building itself. She suspected that the AST couldn't see her or Shido considering that they hadn't mounted an assault to 'save' them, but she also didn't expect that luxury to last long so she sat down too. The AST opened fire again as she sat down, but the bullets ricocheted harmlessly off the force field and slammed into the ground instead.

"I'm curious, if you're not human, then what exactly are you?" Shido asked after a bit of small-talk.

"I'm not sure. I don't remember how long ago it was, but I wasn't 'born' like you humans. Instead, I just simply appeared from nothing." Tohka replied while a soft sigh escaped her lips. "Most of my older memories are fuzzy, and distorted too. I'm not really sure WHAT I am at all."

Sam looked towards Shido. _"To not know what oneself is."_ Why did that bother Sam so much? She shook the thought away quickly, very much unwilling to go down that particular rabbit hole.

"That's awful." Shido added. The tone dropping once more.

"I suppose so." Tohka said. "My appearance was sudden and inexplicable. I had just gotten used to the sensation of seeing things when I was attacked by them." She pointed towards the AST units above them, still unloading their weaponry onto the force field.

"Interesting." Shido looked towards Tohka as she continued to look skyward. _"I'll do anything I can to help you Tohka."_

"Here's your chance Shido! Her happiness meter is well over seventy! So if you were ever going to make a move, do it now!" Kotori cheered.

"Ok, what do you want me to do?" Shido asked under his breath.

Samanya meanwhile, was suddenly met with the reality of the situation. She was being a third wheel! Despite the gravity of the moment, Sam couldn't help but get caught up in her own little world as Shido squirmed beside her, receiving an awkward command from Kotori. However, as Shido muttered to Kotori, Tohka noticed something off-putting.

"You've been muttering under your breath for a while..."

Sam, who had recently returned to the world of the collective living, didn't like where this was heading.

"Are you hiding something from me?" Challenged Tohka.

"No of course not! I wouldn't hide anything from you!" Rambled a panicky Shido.

"Then tell me what you were saying just now!"

"I... forgot?"

Sam snorted. _"Nice save, Shido."_

"I don't believe you." The ball of energy at the tip of Tohka's finger grew a little bigger. Sam slowly reached down and felt the reassuring grip of her rifle.

"Come on, ask her out already." Coaxed Kotori.

The rest of the crew started to cheer down their earpieces too. "Ask her out! Ask her out! Ask her out! Ask her out! Ask her out!"

"Alright I'll do it! Just shut up already!" Shido yelled. "Hey Tohka, I wanna ask you something, but it's kind of abrupt, so stay with me, OK?"

"OK..." Tohka responded.

Shido forced himself to form the words, "Will you... Will you go out on a date with me?"

Part of the roof suddenly fell inwards and Sam seemed to be the only one who noticed. She saw the AST units clearly, hovering in formation, but their guns weren't firing. She saw Origami Tobiichi, and Origami saw Shido, and in those few moments Samanya predicted exactly what was about to happen: Origami would recognise Shido, draw her sword, and attempt to 'save' him from the spirit.

But Sam was faster.

She took out her own weapon and extended her wings. She activated her trusters and launched herself between Tohka and Origami to meet the blow.

"Seriously, you don't know what a date-" Shido began

"Look out! The AST!" Kotori shrieked. At the same time, Samanya and Origami clashed, Origami's sword biting into Sam's gauntlets.

Tohka swung with her broadsword and forced Origami away from Sam. "How rude!"

Origami landed in front of Shido, her back to him, and stared down both Tohka and Sam.

"Tobiichi?" Shido asked.

"Stand back!" Origami demanded.

"Well if it isn't you again." Tohka spat.

"He's not your shield, you scum!" Retorted Origami.

Sam had since left this conflict to Tohka, and instead turned her weapon towards the rest of the AST in case of another attack.

"Wait a sec! You've got it all wrong!" Shido pleaded.

Tohka pointed her sword towards Origami, lifting it effortlessly with one hand, and increased the intensity of its glow.

"Shido, Sam. Get out of there now! The Fraxinus will come to retrieve you two." Kotori shouted, almost begging.

"And leave her here alone?" Shido asked.

Sam turned back towards Origami, but Origami's attention was focused on Tohka. She dashed past Origami and rested a hand on Shido's shoulder. "She'll be fine, but we need to get out of here!"

As if to prove her point, Tohka slashed in an arc and a wave of purple energy cascaded over Origami and she was launched backwards into Sam and Shido. Shido probably wouldn't have survived the blast if Sam hadn't scooped him up (again) and leapt into the evening air.


	5. Close call

**SKIP THIS IF YOU'RE JUST HERE TO READ, AND ARE NOT INTERESTED IN KEEPING UPDATED WITH THE UPLOAD SCHEDULE.**

Hello there! Time for a few updates and disclaimers, I'm afraid. Firstly, this is now my longest chapter, and it has taken me absolutely ages to write, so I hope you enjoy it, but there will probably be some mistakes or things that I have missed, so as always please point them out. Secondly, I'm going to be taking a short break from writing for a few reasons: I've already written over 14,000 words in 10 days and I'm exhausted, I'm going to start planning the Yoshino and Kurumi arcs and I'm going to be working on some sketches for Sam's armour to better portray what I was going for. There will probably be an 8 days or so gap between the next chapter, with the sketches coming out at some point during that. Thirdly, I made up some plot points in this chapter from what I had seen in the show, so they may or may not be correct, but oh well. Lastly, as you may have already guessed, I won't be writing any further than the end of season 2 until season 3 comes out for obvious reasons, being that I can't read Japanese and the manga or LN don't have official translations yet.

Anyway, that's enough from me. Please enjoy Date A Live: Samanya's story, Chapter 5: Close call

-This is Ryan "Maltesers123" McGowan, signing off for now!

-Chapter 5

"Tohka's here?" Sam almost spat out her coffee in surprise. "How?" As far as she was aware, there had been no reports of spacial quakes between now and the last time they met Tohka.

"We're not entirely sure." Came Kotori's flustered reply. Even she was clearly shocked by the whole ordeal. "Tohka just showed up outside Shido's school. She said that it was time for the date, but she also asked where you were."

"She does not know what a date is, does she?"

"It doesn't seem like it..." Kotori trailed off.

"Well, what did Shido say?" Sam asked.

"He tried to explain to her that you wouldn't be coming-"

Sam sighed as she waited for the 'but'.

"-but she didn't want to hear it, and refused to go anywhere without you being present." Kotori finished.

Sam groaned and emptied her coffee. "OK," She huffed, "How am I playing this?"

"Well obviously you can't go in suited, so you'll just have to pick something nice to wear."

Sam didn't really have 'nice' things to wear. She mostly just wore T-shirts and jeans. "Ok, I'll see what I've got." She said. Sam really didn't like socialising, and she was more-than-happy to leave that kind of stuff to Shido. She emerged from her room 5 minutes later in the nicest clothes she could find: A pair of light blue jeans, a simple grey and blue T-shirt, A denim jacket which she hadn't ever worn and a pair of grey trainers.

"OK, this will have to do." She said to herself. She grabbed the small earpiece from the kitchen counter and fastened it in her ear. "Kotori?"

"We hear you." She responded.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Alright, we'll pick you up and drop you off just out of sight. Then, run round the corner and act as if you've just sprinted there." Instructed Kotori.

"You got it!" Confirmed Sam, oddly surprised at how enthusiastic she suddenly was. _"Maybe this won't be so bad."_ She thought.

She was inside the teleporter room of the Fraxinus moments later. She had just gotten her bearings after the sudden transmission (something she doubted she'd ever get used to) when Kotori started laughing down her ear, " _that_ is the nicest thing you have to wear?"

"Shut up!" Retorted Sam. "I don't really do 'nice' and 'girly'. I didn't do it back in Britain, and I certainly don't do it here!"

Kotori sighed, "You're hopeless."

Sam was about to talk back but she was again whisked off of her feet by a brilliant beam of white and teleported somewhere else.

She was placed just outside the school's front gate after the beam dissipated and as she rounded the corner she saw Shido and Tohka talking. The first thing she noticed was Tohka who was currently dressed in a Raizen Highscool uniform, as opposed to her spirit armour. As they turned to look at her, she quickened her pace to a brisk run, her feet creating a loud scuffing noise with every step. Shido waved as she closed the gap and Tohka (who was apparently excited to see her) shouted Sam's name in greeting.

"Hey Sam!" Tohka yelled. Sam skidded to a halt in front of them. She shot a glance at Shido but he just shrugged back, clearly unsure of how Tohka was here as well. "Now that we're all here, let's go let's go let's go!"

Sam laughed and Shido scratched his head. "Well Shido, you heard the lady. Let's go!"

"Yeah, let's do this!" Shido shouted.

The group headed off towards the city centre and passed many different shops and stalls along the way. Tohka seemed eager to go to or inside every single one that sold food; be it a bakery, a sweet shop or a sushi restaurant, she tried it all. Shido and Sam both felt quite uncomfortable towards the beginning of the date but learned to relax as time went on.

"What's with all these people!" Tohka yelled as they rounded a corner into a busier section of the city. "Is this an all-out war? I better attack before the mecha-mecha squad turns up!" She punctuated that last sentence by charging a glowing ball of purple energy, before having it quickly snuffed out by Shido's interruption.

"No wait! You don't want to do that!" He shouted sternly, but still softly. Sam was impressed by how well he handled these situations, and so she quickly learnt to leave these types of confrontations to Shido rather than attempting them herself.

"What are you doing?" Tohka asked as she struggled with Shido, her voice slightly higher pitched than usual. "I'm trying to save us!"

"There's nothing to save us from!" Shido reassured. "No-one is trying to hurt you, see?"

Tohka took another look around. _"Oh, he's right."_ She thought, and lowered her attack. Sam and Shido looked at each other and inwardly sighed.

 _"She's a hot-head."_ Samanya thought.

Shido, as if reading her mind, nodded back. "Come on, let's keep wandering around, shall we?"

Tohka briskly nodded and pointed towards another food stall. "Let's go try that! It looks yummy!"

"How are you _still_ hungry?" Shido asked, exasperated by Tohka's unending appetite. "Agh, I should of brought more money..." He looked back up at Samanya, and she looked back at him. They locked eyes for a moment, before simultaneously breaking out into a loud laugh.

"This is going to be a long day." Sam stated, still laughing.

"Tell me about it." Sighed Shido.

"Come on you two! I can't get more food without you!" Tohka shouted above the crowd of people.

Sam and Shido glanced at each other again before setting off to catch up with Tohka, who was waving at them frantically from across the street. The group continued around the city with Tohka leading them to whatever seemed appealing to her. She was currently talking to another shopkeeper when Shido asked Sam one of the many questions he had been meaning to ask.

"Why is your hair that colour?" He asked.

Sam involuntarily reached up at it. "Well, I dyed it, of course."

"But why?"

Sam thought for a moment, as if she couldn't quite remember why she had done it in the first place. "It's because I never liked my old hair colour, it just didn't suit me."

"What was it?" Shido pressed.

"I used to be blonde. But it was the kind of blonde that only worked with long hair, and I hated long hair, so I dyed it." Sam replied. She slightly doubted her own memory, but her memory had never been great anyway so she shrugged away the thought.

Shido tried to imagine Sam with blonde hair, but he couldn't really do it. Maybe she was right about it looking bad on her... "Why teal though?"

Sam opened her mouth to speak, but then quickly realised she didn't have an answer. She was about to say something again when her train of thought was interrupted by Tohka.

"Hey Shido!" Tohka yelled (again).

Sam and Shido both looked towards Tohka, and they forgot the conversation had ever happened almost immediately.

"Yeah?" Shido asked.

"What's this place?" Tohka queried. As she said that she pointed towards the name of the restaurant and Shido followed her gaze.

"An... expensive one." He said, frowning. _"I don't have anywhere near enough money for that place..."_

"I don't know what that means." Tohka frowned. "I'm going in anyway!"

Shido was about to reach out and stop her when Tonomachi appeared seemingly out-of-nowhere. Sam looked around at her surroundings, unsure of where she fit into the current situation.

"Hey Shido!" Tonomachi shouted.

 _"Why is everyone shouting today?"_ Sam asked herself.

"Oh, Tonomachi. What a surprise." Shido forced himself to not sound too disinterested.

Tonomachi suddenly noticed Tohka and pulled Shido aside. "Woah, Shido! How do you find yourself that kind of tail without me knowing about it?"

"Hey! Get off of me!" Shido snapped.

The bell on the door of the restaurant suddenly rang as Tohka waltzed through the door.

"And straight off the top of the shelf." Tonomachi said, more for his own benefit than anyone else's. Shido was about to run after her when Tonomachi grabbed him (again) and presented some coupons.

"A friend gave these to me but I think they'll impress your new girl and help you score later. You're welcome in advance!" He said as he waved and bounded off.

It was all Sam could do to not burst into laughter at the display performed by Shido's colourful friend. She was relieved that Tonomachi hadn't noticed her; The ability to become scarce at a moment's notice came in handy in ordinary life too, it seemed.

Shido sighed, "Let's just go and get Tohka."

"Yeah, before she orders two of everything on the menu." Sam said, only half-joking.

They walked in through the doors and were met by Reine, dressed in the restaurant's uniform.

Shido was about to say something when she quickly shushed him. "Tohka's waiting over there." She said, pointing at a hollering Tohka.

He tentatively walked over to her, but as Sam was about to follow Reine took her aside.

"What's going on?" Sam asked.

"We're worried that you three are being stalked." Reine drily said. They both looked over and saw Kotori taking their order. Sam saw Shido do a double-take when approached by his sister before getting hit in the face with the tray she was carrying to shut him up. She returned her gaze to Sam. "There's no reason to panic yet, but just be on your guard. You _must_ protect Shin and Princess."

'Shin', Reine's name for Shido, if Sam was remembering correctly. "Well, I'll do my best, given the circumstance."

"Good." Was all Reine said, before she walked off.

Sam strode back over to Shido's table as Kotori started to walk away. She sat down next to Shido when a buffet-worth of food started to approach them. The three of them were stunned as all kinds of pastas, meats, juices, cakes and fruits were piled upon the table.

When the onslaught of food finally ceased, Shido said, "'The how about this'? More like: 'What's with all this?'"

While Shido was busy thinking about where this had all come from, Tohka was already devouring every thing she could see. "Mmmm, this is weally goob!" Tohka said, her mouth full of food. Sam nudged Shido and began to dig in. Shido quickly followed suit and, mostly thanks to Tohka's insatiable appetite, they had the whole meal finished in less than 20 minutes.

"Hey, you two." Kotori's voice appeared down Sam and Shido's earpieces as Tohka sat, finally the slightest bit satisfied. "I need you to bring Tohka south of the city once you're done here."

"Why? That's just a residential area." Shido questioned Kotori's judgement.

"Just trust me, OK?"

"OK..." Shido trailed off.

"You don't know?" Sam interjected.

"Know what?"

Sam wondered why Shido was kept so in-the-dark about this sort of stuff. "Never mind." She said.

Shido looked back over at Tohka, who was sat up straight and eager to get moving. "Ready to carry on?"

Tohka gave Shido an excited nod. The group walked out of the restaurant and headed south, like Kotori had prompted, all the while Tohka commenting on every passing thing.

"Hey Sam." Tohka said. Her mood always seemed slightly calmer and less-excitable when she was addressing Sam.

"Yeah?" Sam simply replied.

"How come you're not wearing your armour today?"

Sam thought for a moment of the best way to answer. She decided to be straight-forward and honest. "It's because, I wouldn't exactly go unnoticed if I was walking around with that thing on. Most people wouldn't know how to respond to something that they've never seen before walking around so nonchalantly." As she finished, she wondered if Tohka would even know what 'nonchalantly' meant.

"But, what about the mecha-mecha squad? They look similar to you."

"But you see, Tohka, not many people know that they exist. Not many people know that you exist either. When you come to this world, people are evacuated, and no footage is recorded of the event itself, only the aftermath."

"So, no-one sees me or the mecha-mecha squad?"

"Nope. Unless someone is very special, like me or Shido, then you and the AST only exist in the realm of imagination."

Tohka thought about that for a while as they walked, and the next few seconds passed in silence.

"So, everyone's NOT out to get me? And it's only a really small group of people?"

"Yes, that's exactly it. That's what me and Shido want to show you: The truth."

Tohka went silent again as they walked, and Sam tried to imagine how Tohka was feeling. She realised that she was in the exact same position as Tohka: The world not knowing that you exist while not being able to share your true identity in the first place. Sam was suddenly aware of her loneliness in this word, and it caused her to shudder. She put a hand on Tohka's shoulder "But now you have us." She said, guilty that she had brought the mood down so much.

Tohka looked at Sam and then at Shido. "Yeah!" She cheered, the spark in her eyes returning. Sam smiled and Shido resumed answering Tohka's questions as Tohka resumed asking them.

 _"Maybe this won't be so bad after all."_ Sam repeated in her head.

The rest of the date went by without much difficulty. They were greeted by the crew of the Fraxinus along with countless more stalls when they made it to their destination. Sam laughed as Shido walked around, confused, again. Tohka sprinted from stall to stall, apparently still not hungry even after everything she had already eaten while interrogating every stall-owner there for more and more food. They played countless games and entered numerous prize draws, Shido still wearing the most suspicious look he could possibly wear, Sam noticed, and Tohka continuing to run and yell and eat. At one point, Tohka passionately grabbed Shido's hand and, despite everything, he still blushed. When Sam saw this she couldn't help but sigh as she witnessed the spirit's greatest hope blush at the idea of holding hands.

They had just reached the end of the 'festival', which Sam had repeatedly called it throughout, when it started to rain.

"Huh, that's weird. There wasn't any rain forecasted." Kotori said. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. You were done there anyway."

"Where do you think we should go?" Shido asked.

"I'd say the arcade. It's close, and Princess would probably enjoy it the most out of everything near you." Kotori suggested.

"OK, we'll head there now." Shido said. He told Tohka where they were going, but she didn't really understand what an arcade was, so she just followed along as Sam brought up the rear.

As they entered the arcade and Tohka continued to follow Shido in, Sam noticed something very strange. She stopped mid-stride and saw a small girl that couldn't have been any older than eleven, dressed in a very impressive and detailed green coat and holding a white puppet in one hand. She cautiously approached the girl, and as she got closer she noticed her looking longingly at the toys inside the machine. Sam acted without really thinking and sidled up against the girl. The girl looked up at her with bright blue eyes, long light-blue hair flowing down her face and her mouth wide open in surprise. Sam looked down at her and winked, before activating the machine, expertly operating the crane and winning the prize she assumed the girl was staring at before she even got a chance to speak. Sam then handed the girl the toy and patted her head. When she finished, the girl looked back up at Sam and her eyes were so bright with gratitude that she didn't know what to say. Sam smiled down at the girl once more before turning around and heading into the arcade to find Shido and Tohka before things got too hectic. As she walked away, however, she couldn't help but sneak another glance at the strange girl over her shoulder. She saw the girl turn towards her puppet, and her puppet turn towards her, before walking off into the rain and disappearing from view.

Sam found them both after what seemed like an attempt from Tohka to scream the building down. She rounded a corner as they both cheered and Tohka tightly hugged a giant stuffed toy that Sam assumed she had just won. Sam couldn't help but smile as they looked at each other with glee, and she slowly backed away again, careful not to interrupt their little celebration. She met up with them again a little while later, Tohka still clutching that giant thing and Shido still wearing a wide smile.

Before any of them knew it, it was starting to get dark. The sun hung low over the city of Tenguu and long black shadows were cast by the various buildings. It was a bit of a journey to get up here, but the reward was an unparalleled view of the city at dusk, and a sight to truly behold. Tohka leant over the railings and looked down at the sheer drop, and then around at the trees that surrounded them. They were dense, like a forest, but perched dangerously on the side of a cliff above and below the outcrop where they stood. Sam suddenly felt awkward. It was coming to the end of the date, and she didn't really know how to act, so she stuck to the shadows and put a short distance between her and the other two.

"Wow!" Cheered Tohka as she gazed at the city in the distance, illuminated by the evening sun.

"Quite a view, eh?" Shido asked.

"Mmm, it's beautiful." Tohka said softly. She looked towards Shido who was also staring out over the city, and then back again. "Thank you, I had so much fun today." Tohka said passionately and completely purely.

"Yeah, me too. Thanks for coming." Shido said.

They looked out into the distance in silence for a while longer, admiring the breathtaking scene and savouring every moment they could, before Tohka broke it once more. "Shido? The day is almost over and I still didn't see a date, can you tell me what one is like?"

Shido sighed. "A date is just when a boy and a girl go out and have a good time together. You can't actually see one."

"Oh, that makes sense." Tohka nodded. "Well in that case I'd say we had a wonderful date today, Shido."

Sam could hear the conversation from where she was, and she was both glad and hurt that Tohka seemed to have forgotten all about her.

"Heh, sure..." Shido trailed off.

"I like dates, they're nice" Tohka's soft voice triggered something in Sam, but she didn't know what it was. A date? Had she ever been on one of those? Obviously not, and she had always told herself that she didn't want to go on one, but seeing Tohka so happy... it made her stop and think.

What none of them realised, however, was that they had all let their guard down prematurely. In all the excitement of the date Sam had completely forgotten Reine's warning, and she was about to pay dearly for her slip-up. Because about five hundred meters away, Origami Tobiichi of the AST had a high-powered sniper rifle lined up with the back of Tohka's head.

"All the humans were very kind today." Tohka said, seemingly delegated by her own will to use a soft voice.

"No-one tried to kill you, did they?" Joked Shido. "I told you that you'd be fine." He winked at Tohka.

"Yeah, you're right. I never knew the world was so kind; So much fun." Tohka's normally bouncy self was replaced by a sad choir as she talked. "And so beautiful." She had to concentrate to keep going. She closed her eyes as she continued, "I love it here. But now, I understand why the mecha-mecha squad is after me." Tohka opened her eyes to look at Shido. "Because whenever I appear in this world, your world, something bad happens. I destroy something beautiful."

"That's not true." Shido said delicately.

"So listen, I've been thinking. It's better if I don't exist anymore."

Shido gasped involuntarily at the thought.

"Don't say that! I don't want to hear it!" Shido snapped. Not out of anger, but out of desperation instead. "We're fine! There was no spacial quake today, was there? You didn't destroy, or ruin or hurt anything or anyone!"

"Yes but, that doesn't mean there won't be one next time I appear..." Tohka's voice quietened as she said those last few words. "Once I go back and fall asleep, I won't be able to control myself." She was trying extremely hard to not let her voice waver, but she was slipping, and sharp inhales started to dot her speech.

"Fine! Then I guess you just can't go back!" Shido snapped. "Have you ever even tried? Just once! Just try staying here."

Sam knew she should do something, but she was suddenly frozen by a growing sense of dread and sweat started to appear on her forehead.

"Even if I did, there's so many things I don't know about this world." Tohka seemed defeated, as if she had convinced herself of her own fate.

"I'll teach you everything you don't know."

"Then... I'd need food, and a place to sleep. What if something happens that we're not prepared for?"

Shido strengthened his resolve. "I'm going to take care of you." He assured. "If something comes up that we need to deal with, then we'll deal with it! You've got me and Sam, remember? We'll always be by your side."

"Are you sure? Am I even allowed to be here? Is it truly OK for me to exist in this world?" Tohka asked.

"Yes, it is."

"You're the only one who would say that to me. You too Sam." She looked over to where Sam was standing against a wall, and then back over to Shido. "Humans like the mecha-mecha squad don't want to risk it. They don't want something as dangerous as me nearby."

Shido cut in as Tohka was finishing, "I don't care about them! I care about you." Shido's eyes burned with passion as he spoke. "Even if everyone else rejects you, it doesn't change the fact that I accept you and I don't want you to leave!"

Tohka was stunned by Shido's kindness and found herself unable to move or speak.

Shido held out his hand. "Take my hand. That's the only thing you have to do right now."

Tohka smiled and reached out; Reached out to take Shido's hand and put all of her trust in him, because he had earned it as her saviour.

Time slowed down for Sam. The sudden realism of that sense of dread that she had been feeling almost making her throw up. She bolted towards Shido, launching herself forwards with every step. She couldn't tell if Shido or Tohka had noticed it yet. Noticed the clawing fingers of fear that sprouted from the girl on the hill; The girl that was about to end Tohka's life; The girl with the rifle; Origami Tobiichi.

Sam wasn't going to make it.

A boy's shout.

A girl's shriek.

Sam's pounding breath.

A shot.

The bullet ripped through the air as if powered by it's own malicious intent, forcing air out of it's way to get to it's target.

Tohka was pushed to the floor. "What're you-?" Tohka fell silent as Sam tripped and fell, her arm outstretched in a wasted effort to save Shido. Tohka looked in horror as Shido dropped to the ground and lay there, lifeless. On the hill, Origami's rifle fell with a clatter as she slumped to her knees and her eyes started to lose focus as she realised what she'd done.

Tohka slowly stepped towards Shido, her shoes making ripples in the pool of blood that had spread out around him. Meanwhile, Sam was looking up at Shido from where she tripped and she slowly retracted her hand, knowing that it hadn't quite hit her yet: the realisation of loss.

"Shido..." Tohka whispered. She looked down at Sam, who had given up trying to get up and instead just lay there, looking down at the floor. Tohka silently removed her blazer and gently settled it across Shido's body. Sam slammed her fist against the concrete, leaving a sizeable dent in it. She would later remember how odd that was, but right now she thought nothing of it. All Sam felt or thought now was of guilt, grief and loss as she forced herself onto her feet while Tohka began to sob.

"I thought that maybe if you were here for me it would be OK." Tohka whispered. "Might be hard, but we'd be able to do it with you by my side. I can get through anything when I'm with you." Tohka sounded dead as she said this, showing no emotion as she spoke. "But it doesn't matter." Tohka clenched her teeth and started to shudder rapidly. "Nothing matters now. You're gone, and there's nothing I can do about it."

Tohka suddenly turned on Sam. "You! Why didn't you do anything?" She screamed.

Sam looked right back at her. She looked straight back into Tohka's eyes and said, "I've failed you Tohka. I failed Shido. I failed everyone." Dejected, Sam fell to her knees. Somewhere in the back of her mind was a voice, and that voice was pleading for Sam to get up and focus on what needed to be done. But she didn't hear it.

Tohka looked away from Sam, disgusted, and instead looked towards the heavens. "This world has rejected me for the last time!" She thrust her hand towards the sky and the clouds suddenly darkened. They swirled around a glowing point directly above Tohka's hand and became faster and more intense as the light concentrated. Dark bolts of energy started to leap out at each other, starting and ending in the mass of grey cloud above them.

A bolt suddenly struck Tohka, and she was engulfed in an awesome energy. Her hair blew wildly and erratically as gale-force winds tore at her, but she still remained upright while her clothes began to disappear as sparks danced up and down her body, blindingly bright.

Tohka yelled at the clouds, "Adonai Merek!" While still engulfed by the dark energy, her spirit armour started to form around her as it appeared from nowhere. she cast her gaze towards Origami, while stamping down with her heel and causing a crack to form and spread outwards. As the crack spread, purple fire started to erupt from it and it threatened to burn Sam. Tohka's sword rose from the ground, it's hilt glistening in the sunlight while it's blade lay buried in it's stone sheath. "Sandalphon!" Tohka shouted as she ripped it from its resting place. She leapt off of the tall stone sheath and slashed a perfectly vertical arc towards it; the sheath exploded and the fragments adorned themselves up the length of Sandalphon while letting off more light.

When the transformation was finally finished, Tohka roared with rage. "Halvanhelv!" This new sword was three times as long as Sandalphon, it glowed with an evil energy and its tip looked like the head of a vicious mythological creature with eyes burning red with anger. Tohka took off towards Origami, her sword down by her side, and her aura far more powerful than it's ever been before.

Sam could only watch as Tohka attacked Origami. Arcs of evil energy leaping out at the shield that Origami was kneeling under. Sam closed her eyes, letting go of everything. She had failed, and now there was no hope in stopping Tohka, or saving the spirits.

She was ready to accept the consequences when the voice broke through.

Kotori.

"Sam! Get up now! We can still save Tohka!" Kotori pleaded, her usual tone subverted by a very worried one.

Sam reopened her eyes and managed enough effort to speak. "What's the point?" She asked gruffly. "Shido's dead, Tohka hates me, and there's nothing I can do..."

Tohka could be heard screaming in rage in the distance as Sam lay there.

"Sam! Shido is still alive! And Tohka can still be stopped!"

"What?" Sam was sure this was a false promise. She saw the bullet rip through him with her own eyes.

"Look, in about ten seconds Shido's going to get up, unhurt. I'll explain why later, but now I need you to listen closely."

The tone in Kotori's voice somehow convinced Sam that she was telling the truth. She forced herself onto her feet and looked down at Shido, but she also saw something unusual. A small purple flame was flickering above Shido's wound. It had burnt its way through Tohka's blazer and was slowly dancing in the wind, but it wasn't casting any light like an ordinary flame would. Sam watched the flame for a moment, mesmerised by its movements, when Shido started to move.

"Argh! Hot hot hot hot hot-hot-hot-hot!" Shido slapped at the flame while quickly sitting up. He looked up at Sam. "Where am-?" He never got the chance to finish because Sam threw herself at him and hugged him tightly.

"Oh god Shido! You're alive!" Sam cheered.

"What happened?" Shido asked, surprisingly calm despite all that had just transpired.

Sam checked her actions and quickly pulled back. "Listen Shido, I'm not entirely sure myself, but you were shot by Origami. You should be dead, but you're obviously not. Tohka doesn't know this though and-" Sam pointed towards the hovering aura in the distance. "-she's about to wipe out Origami, and the city."

Shido looked to where Sam was pointing and saw the glowing mass that was Tohka. "OK, what do I need to do?"

Kotori answered that question. "We need to get you to Tohka, and fast!" Kotori directed her next sentence to Sam, "Sam, the only way to get Shido to Tohka fast enough is via you."

"How though? I don't have my armour." Sam stated.

"We're gonna do _it_."

"What?" Sam challenged. "The last time we tried that I fainted. The stakes are a lot higher now and I don't want to risk it!"

"I know, I know. That's why we're only gonna send the bare essentials: No weapons, no shield, no wings. Just enough to get you to Tohka."

Sam thought for a moment. She would have liked more time to assess the danger of Kotori's plan, but every second wasted was one second closer to Tohka destroying the whole city. "OK, if there's no other way, then go for it." She solemnly nodded.

Sam started to glow. Dimly at first, but the light quickly solidified around the effected areas of her body. The light continued to brighten, until suddenly it dissipated and left Sam's armour in its wake. Sam coughed and doubled over, leaving a bloodstain on the concrete. She collapsed to her knees and her vision started blurring, she also heard Shido shouting to her left but she couldn't work out what he was saying. Instant armour transmission took an incredible toll on the user's body. The natural territory-to-mind link didn't occur and was forced to happen at a ridiculous speed. The last time Sam had tried it, she had buckled under the strain and fell unconscious for hours, but that was when she had tried the entire thing, including her wings, shield and weapons systems. The sudden strain on her body and mind had been too much and the experiment was deemed a failure. They hadn't tried again afterwards.

Sam managed to stand back up after another short coughing fit. "Ugh, that takes more of a toll than I remember..." Sam strained herself to get the words out. She looked down at Shido who was staring back at her, eyes wide. "Come on then. Let's go save Tohka." Sam said. She scooped Shido up (again, again) and took off after Tohka, the thrusters in her arms and legs being forced to operate on their own. Without the aid of her wings, Sam's flight was rather sluggish, and she had made it about halfway when she realised they weren't going to make it. Tohka's sword was bearing down on a newly-defenceless Origami, unparalleled ferocity escaping from within the blade and hungry for destruction.

"Sam! You don't have enough time to fly him over there!" Kotori clamoured. "You'll have to throw him!"

Shido overheard that one. "What? throw me?"

"She's right..." Sam murmured. Shido was about to object, but Sam knew they had no time. So she drew back, grabbed Shido by his torso and legs (while meeting fierce opposition from him) and slung him through the air. "Probably going to have to have a word with him about that little stunt later." Sam sighed, knowing that the rest of this was out of her hands, and that only Shido could save them and Tohka now.

Shido hurtled through the air, screaming Tohka's name as he barrelled towards her. Tohka stopped attacking and looked towards him. "Shido! You're alive!" Tohka spun her body around and pushed through the air to meet him. She caught him in her arms and looked straight at him. "Shido, is it really you?" Tohka asked, the anger in her voice had seemingly disappeared.

"Yeah, well I think it is." Shido replied, slightly joking.

Tohka started crying and she pulled herself closer into his arms, burying her face in his chest. "Thank you! Thank you for coming back!"

"Stop crying, everything's OK now." Shido was trying to cheer up Tohka when Halvenhelv started to pulsate with a red energy and spark out of control. "Tohka, what the heck is that?"

"I accidentally unsheathed Halvenhelv!" Tohka cried.

By this point, Sam had caught up, and was hovering a short distance away from them. She placed herself between Tohka and the rest of the AST, in order to protect them in case the AST decided to attack but she already knew that they weren't going to risk it. "How do you _accidentally_ unsheathe _that_?"

Tohka quickly looked guiltily over at Sam, and then turned back to Shido. "I have to find somewhere to release it!"

"No, you definitely don't want to do that!" Shido cautioned.

"But it's already gone critical! If I don't release it, it will explode and destroy everything!" Tohka pleaded. "We'd both die, and the destruction would be worse than when I appear in this world!"

"There's got to be another way!" Shido shouted. "Kotori, any suggestions?" He whispered, making sure Tohka couldn't hear.

"Shido! Listen carefully. The only way to seal Tohka's power is to kiss her! You have to do it to save you, Tohka and everyone else. And you have to do it now!" Kotori demanded.

"What? Are you sure there's no other way?" Shido asked because he was unsure of how Tohka was going to react.

Kotori shook her head, even though Shido wouldn't have been able to see her do it, and plainly replied, "No, there's no other way."

Shido silently nodded. He grabbed Tohka by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Tohka, there's one other way to save you."

"Tell me! I'll do anything!" Tohka said.

"We- We have to kiss now, OK?"

"What?" Tohka asked, confused as to what a 'kiss' was.

"Nevermind, there has to be another way." Shido said, embarassed that he had brought it up.

"No, it's just that I don't know what a kiss is!" Tohka quickly said.

"Well..." Shido started to explain what a kiss was. "It's where we put our lips together and-"

Shido never got the chance to finish because Tohka surged forwards and kissed him fiercely on the mouth. Her hair started to rise upwards as Halvenhelv's discharge of energy stopped and the sword itself quickly vanished, at the same time, her spirit armour started to peel off, and as it dropped off of her it evaporated into thin air with a faint sparkle. Tohka and Shido, still wrapped in each other's embrace, started to slowly float down to the floor.

When they had both landed, Shido quickly pulled away in shame. "I'm so sorry! They said this was the only way I could save you!"

Tohka lowered her head and pulled herself even closer to Shido. "Just don't let me go." Tohka said while her cheeks turned a shade of crimson. "I'm- I'm not ready for you to see me naked yet..."

Shido squealed and Sam dropped to the floor, landing with as much grace as a falling elephant and the weight to fit the role.

"Well, I'd say that was a job well done!" Sam joked and rubbed her hands. She quickly realised her mistake however when she saw Tohka and Shido holding each other, and how they were still having a moment together, so she quickly backed away and looked the opposite direction.

"Shido?" Tohka quietly asked.

"Uhuh?" Came Shido's strained reply.

"Will you uhhh, take me out on another date sometime?"

Shido smiled and nodded. "Sure. Whenever you'd like."

Tohka looked up at him and smiled back, her mouth wide and her eyes bright.

Sam looked upwards at the sky, then over towards Origami and then back over towards Shido and Tohka. She chuckled to herself.

"Job well done."


	6. Feelings

-Chapter 6

Sam was out classed. _"Damn it! Why can't I hit this guy! He dodges everything I try!"_ She shouted internally. Sam was hopelessly overwhelmed by this new foe, and she could feel herself losing hope as she was forced onto the back foot again by his extremely fast attacks. _"I can't keep this up much longer!"_

Sam managed to back out of his attack's range as she retreated, a feeling she was getting used to. She felt that she didn't have much more to give, and that it would only take a few strong hits from him and it would be all over. _"OK, I can't beat this guy like this, I need to calm down and come up with a strategy."_ Sam forced herself to calm down until she could find a way out of this mess. She looked towards her attacker, who just stood before her, unmoving and dead silent. Chills started to run down Sam's back. "Is he mocking me?" She asked herself. She looked at him again and narrowed her eyes. _"So far, he seems to be more comfortable when fighting at longer ranges, but I'm definitely more suited for close-quarters combat."_ Sam scratched her chin. _"If I can get in close, maybe even take some shots as I close the gap if I have to, I might just win by denying him any room to move..."_

"OK, let's do this!" Sam charged her opponent down. She expected him to jump back and bombard her from afar, but instead he stayed put, ready to meet her attacks. _"Hah! You think you've got this in the bag already, don't you? Well think again, buddy! I'm not going down that easily!"_ Sam and her opponent met blow-for-blow. Each attack on either end was either dodged or parried by the other, but Sam could still see him starting to slip. _"Yes! I'm faster at close range! I might have a chance at this!"_ She kept up the pressure with a never-ending barrage of blows and, finally, some of them started to land home. Sam could see him starting to sweat, and so in response she pushed herself even harder.

"That all you got?" She screamed, an obvious taunt. Her foe managed to back out of her reach after failing to keep up with some of her faster techniques. He took off, heading skyward, but Samanya quickly followed behind. Suddenly, he turned around and opened fire with two guns, one in each hand. Sam pushed herself to keep chasing him, and she managed to dodge most of the fire along the way, but she still got hit by some. She slammed into him and grabbed hold with all the might she had. "If I'm going down, them I'll just have to take you with me!" She yelled. Her opponent tried to open fire again, but his guns were whisked away by Sam's smooth kicks and they fell toward the ground, completely useless. _"The ground, that's it!"_ Sam thought. She tightened her hold on him even more, and rocketed to the ground. As they fell, she bound her legs around his arms so she wouldn't have to dodge any punches as they accelerated towards the ground, so, for now at least, all she had to dodge was his vicious headbutts.

Sam braced herself for the impact, and hoped that it would be enough to finish him off. They fell to the ground and both of their bodies slammed into the cold concrete, hard enough to crack and break it. Sam knew she was finished and that she had nothing more to give, but she forced herself to stay upright as she saw a shadowy figure rise from the dust. "No, surely not!" She shouted.

It was him.

He had survived.

And now he was going to kill her.

Sam threw her controller down in frustration. "Damn it Shido! How are you so good at this? We've had eight matches now and I still can't beat you!" Sam had, of course, been playing a fighting game against Shido that whole time and, after eight straight losses, had been getting desperate.

"I'm telling you: I've played this game to death and longer. You're basically going up against a pro." He allowed himself to be smug for once.

Sam picked up her controller again. "One more match!" She requested, determined to beat him at least once.

"If you say so..."

And so they played one more match, to which Sam unceremoniously lost, again.

"OK, OK. I concede." She huffed. She looked over at Shido. "Thanks for the matches!" She extended her hand towards him.

He took it in his own and firmly shook. "Anytime." He smiled. "Oh yeah, I couldn't help noticing this, but why did you change your hair colour?" Shido looked at Sam's new hair colour, a bright cyan, as he asked this.

"Oh, well, funny story. I screwed up the mixing of the dye this morning. And I only noticed once I had already applied it." Sam looked away embarrassed. "Do you like it?" She asked quietly.

Shido took the time to look harder at Sam's new hair. It was still the same mess of jagged ends, not that different from his own hair, he realised, but it was a much brighter colour, and along with Sam's bright green eyes, looked much better. "Yeah. It looks much better that way. You should keep it like that." He said.

Sam looked back at Shido and grinned. "If you say so!" She cheered.

They both went back to playing on Shido's console for a little while. They were playing this racing game that they were equally matched at, and so every race ended with incredibly close times and the winner doing their respective celebration. After three consecutive wins, Sam turned towards him, "So, how's living with Tohka?"

Shido had been told by Reine and Kotori about how Tohka was going to live with him for a little while, until the special housing unit for spirits was built, but Sam had arrived too late to witness the antics unfold. "Ugh, my little sister has been playing all kinds of tricks on me, now that Tohka's here."

"What kind of tricks?"

"Tricks that put me and Tohka into really uncomfortable situations..." Shido sighed.

"Oh, I see." Sam nodded, "That does sound like Kotori."

"I mean, she told me to go have a bath. And I guess she must of told Tohka too because in the middle of it, guess who came barging in."

Sam sighed, "Tohka."

"Yep. I was just going to bed when you arrived, actually."

"Oh really! I'm sorry if I'm keeping you up!"

"No, it's fine. This is the most I've enjoyed myself today anyway, so please stay for a bit longer."

Sam mentally checked her actions and, judging them to be perfectly fine, nodded. "Yeah sure. We'll keep going as long as you like, I don't mind."

"Alright then, how about this?" He presented a shooter game that Sam immediately recognised.

"You're on!" Sam shouted, fired up to meet the challenge.

Sam and Shido both played long into the night, whisking away all the stress and torment that they had been through over the last few days. They were evenly matched in this game too, and their scores were similar by the end of every game. It was around midnight when Sam started thinking things she knew she shouldn't be thinking. She started seeing Shido differently from that moment too. Before then she only connected to him and went along with his shenanigans because it was her job, but now she just wanted to be around him. Sam tried to shake these thoughts away as quickly as she could. "If you get attached then it will only be worse when he dates the spirits." She told herself. But try as she might, she couldn't help but look at him in a different light than ever before. She forced herself to concentrate on the game, but her breathing became heavier as time went on. "Damn it!" She shouted at herself. "Why are you so weak?"

After trying to hide it for about ten minutes, Shido finally noticed that something was off, and so he paused the game. "Hey Sam, are you alright?" He asked softly.

"Huh? Yeah! I'm fine." Sam answered, flustered and too quickly to avoid sounding suspicious.

Shido put his controller down and looked at Sam. Sam tried to look away, but he placed his hand on her shoulder, and so she turned back to face him. "I'm fine, really! See?" Sam forced a smile. She knew it wouldn't fool Shido for a moment, instead she hoped that it would be enough of a hint for him to stop pressing. She would tell him how she really felt later, but for now, she just had to deal with it on her own.

"OK, I trust you." He said.

"Anyway, it's been a lot of fun, but I should head back now." Sam yawned and stretched, trying to act normally. "This was fun though, we should do it again sometime."

"Yeah sure." Shido replied, but he was distracted by something else.

Sam got up and grabbed her things. She walked over to the front door and looked back at him, who was standing in the hallway. "I'll see you tomorrow at school, OK?"

"Yeah sure. See you then, Sam." He said.

"See ya!" Sam opened the door and turned towards home. She waved at Shido once more through the door, closed it, and walked off into the night. She would spend the rest of that night coming to terms with her feelings for him, and how she would have to forget them if she didn't want to be heartbroken every time he sealed a spirit.

She didn't sleep much, that night.


	7. A girl and her puppet

-Chapter 7

On the way to school the next morning, Sam met up with Shido who was also walking with Tohka and she (as usual) proceeded to scream Sam's name the instant she saw her, whereas Shido (as usual) barely noticed Sam until said scream. Sam jogged over to them and gave them both a polite wave and warm smile as Tohka continued to scream and wave and act like a five year-old.

"So, how was your night at Shido's?" Asked Sam, doing her best at small talk.

"Oh, it was OK." Tohka replied with the same less-excitable tone that she always seemed to use when talking to Samanya, despite the display literally seconds before.

Sam smiled again in response as they entered through the front gates that stood guard before the school building. Sam wasn't in Shido's class, unfortunately, and Sam figured that that was because Ratatoskr's influence wasn't absolute in certain public, government run installations, such as a high school. But, before anyone knew it, it was time for lunch, and Sam was just walking down the hall to check on Shido and Tohka when the spacial quake alarm started to sound. "Damn it! We never get a break, do we?" Sam asked.

"No, no we do not." Shido answered, apparently overhearing Sam's question when she entered the room.

As Sam turned to look at Origami, who started walking past her, Shido's homeroom teacher, Tamae Okamine, burst through the other door, instructing the students to evacuate by waving her arms a lot and panicking. Reine also poked her head through the door and gave Sam a slow nod. Sam returned the nod and then looked back at Tohka, who was asking Shido why they needed to leave.

"It's the spacial quake alarm." Shido replied.

"Spacial-?" Recognition flashed across Tohka's face as she spoke. "Oh, that thing."

Shido and Tohka both stood up and packed their things back into their bags as Sam continued to walk towards them. Tohka went over to join the rest of the class, who were beginning to line up down the sides of the corridor, while Sam and Shido walked over to Reine.

"We're going to leave Tohka here, to evacuate with the rest of the class." She said.

"What? Leave her?" Shido asked. He was worried about Tohka and her power, and what could happen if she was left on her own.

"Relax, Shin. With her power sealed, she's just an ordinary girl. Just like anyone else here." Reine clarified. "She's stable at the moment, but if we showed her a fight her anxiety could go up, which we think could damage the seal and increase the risk of her power returning."

Shido was hesitant to leave Tohka, but when he saw Okamine run down the hall after them, he made up his mind. "Miss Okamine?" He asked to get her attention. "Could you take care of Tohka for me, please?"

"What? Of course." She replied, sligtly bemused.

"Hey Tohka." Shido said.

"Yeah?"

"Something just came up, so I'm gonna have to go for a bit. Stay with the lady, OK?"

"OK..."

Shido smiled and took off in the other direction, Sam and Reine close behind.

"Shido! Samanya! Miss Murasame! Where do you think you're going?" Miss Okamine called out.

Shido looked over his shoulder as he ran. "Don't worry about it. Just take care of Tohka please!"

The three of them rounded a corner and, away from any prying eyes be it student or teacher, were retrieved by the Fraxinus. After the same feeling of falling that Sam still hadn't gotten used to, they found themselves in the teleporter room where the environment was a stark contrast to that of the school.

"Come on. Let's get to the bridge to see what we're dealing with." Sam said as she moved to open the door. The other two nodded and they made their way down the ship's long halls to the bridge that sat atop its impressive bow.

"Oh would you look at that. The idiot and the calvary both arrived for the aftermath." Kotori said, characteristically annoying.

"Idiot..?" Shido asked under his breath.

"Calvalry..?" Sam also asked under her breath.

"Anyway, here's the situation." Kotori pointed towards the large display, which was currently showing footage of a girl stood in a crater, no different from the footage of Tohka when Shido was first introduced to Ratatoskr. "It's smaller than usual..." Kotori trailed off.

"I'd like to say that this is a good sign, but this is really about average for Hermit."

"Hermit?" Shido asked.

"The name of the spirit that appeared this time. She's known for being a little more docile than the others, which makes your job easier." The perspective zoomed in and showed the new spirit in a little more clarity. She had an aura not unlike Tohka's, but definitely smaller, and flaked with yellow flames as opposed to Tohka's purple and pink ones. The destruction around her was still devastating, but the radius was a little smaller, just like Kotori had said it was. The really incredible thing, however...

"I've seen this girl before." Shido said.

Sam nodded. "Mmm, me too."

"What? When and where?" Kotori demanded.

"I saw her at the shrine on my way back from school. A couple of nights ago, I think." Shido stated.

"I saw her during Shido and Tohka's date. She was outside the arcade, looking at one of the machines. I won her a toy." Sam said with a shrug.

"WHAT?" Kotori shrieked. "You made contact with a spirit and then didn't tell anybody?"

"Hey, wait a second! I didn't know she was a spirit! I just thought she was an ordinary girl in a cool coat." Sam retorted.

"Ugh, whatever. That's not important right now." Kotori said. She looked towards Kannazuke, "Anything?"

"Well, I can't say much for Sam's case, but we were tracking Hermit by the time Shido met her. There wasn't any spacial quake though." Kannazuke confirmed.

Kotori was about to say something when she was interrupted by one of the Fraxinus' staff, "Commander! The AST has begun their attack!"

All eyes returned to the display as the footage switched to displaying the AST flying in formation and opening fire. The spirit 'Hermit' took off flying as the they painted a picture of bullets and explosions around her. The camera did its best to follow the action as the AST attempted to keep the pressure up on the fleeing spirit, but with the speeds they were traveling at, it was slowly being left behind.

"How can they fire at a little girl like that?" Shido asked. The feeling of despair started to creep up his throat again, just like how it had when he first met Tohka.

"What she looks like doesn't matter to the AST." Kotori said, dryly. "To them, she's a monster that needs to die."

Everyone continued to look on as the AST started to close the gap between them and Hermit. Shido started subtly shaking with anger, and as a rocket found home and slammed into the side of Hermit, knocking her to the ground, he exploded. "I want to go save that girl!" He shouted.

"And that's all I needed to hear." Kotori said with a smug smile. "You know the drill! Get your ass down to the teleporter. Sam, suit up and then follow him."

"You got it." Shido said. Sam just gave a swift nod and took off towards the ship's armoury.

Kotori looked to address everyone else. "Right people! Prepare for a type one capture." She commanded.

"Roger!" They shouted in unison.

10 minutes later, they were both placed inside of a partially ruined department store. The lights didn't work anymore, and combined with the broken mannequins and shreds of clothing lining the place, the atmosphere was gloomy.

"Well this is scarier than I imagined." Sam joked.

Kotori's voice crackled over Shido's earpiece and Sam's headset, "OK, Hermit fled into this building, somewhere in this very room. Like I said before, you're going to be safe from the AST for a little while. Another plus is that they probably won't try bringing down the place like they did with Tohka, because of how built-up this place is and the collateral damage it could cause."

"Yeah yeah. I figured as much." Sam said, distractedly. She slid the visor over her eyes, extended her wings and readied her rifle. _"Just in case."_ She thought.

Shido and Sam slowly started to move away from each other as they fanned out, covering as much distance as possible. Hermit (unsurprisingly) wasn't keen to leap out and greet her new visitors, and combined with the dim light and scattered debris, she was going to be hard to find.

Or not, apparently...

"Don't tell me you're here to bully Yoshinon too!"

"Ah!" Shido quickly retreated a few steps as an upside down white rabbit puppet abruptly appeared right in front of his face. Its left eye was a deep crimson, and it had an 'eyepatch' over its right. The eyepatch was just a simple black button tied on to a black sash that wrapped once around its head, however. Shido looked upwards towards where the rabbit was hanging from, and saw something that looked like what a jester would wear around its neck. As he continued panning up, he eventually got to the little girl that he saw earlier, standing on the ceiling with her mouth slightly open. The girl swiftly flipped around and landed onto the floor, the puppet being whirled away from Shido's face in the process. As the girl stood there for a moment, Shido took the opportunity to closely examine the girl's outfit: The green coat was modeled like a rabbit, with ears and a tail, and adorned with multiple buttons and colorful seams which gave it a very 'arts-and-crafts' look. On her feet were two green, rubber boots and her head and face were in constant shadow, due to the coat's large hood.

"Oh? The lucky-" The rabbit began talking again, but stopped when it saw Sam walking towards them, only just visible in the shadows.

The girl holding the puppet suddenly perked up and started walking towards Samanya, completely ignoring Shido.

"Hey! Metal girl!" The puppet called out.

Sam stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw the puppet. "You- You're that puppet I won in the machine, aren't you?"

"Yep!" It said.

"Umm, excuse me." The girl interrupted. Her voice was quiet, and reserved. It clearly showed that she didn't use it often. Sam looked down at the girl. "Thank you for rescuing him."

"Huh?" Sam asked, confused.

"I could hear him wanting to get out, but he couldn't move on his own, and I couldn't save him without your help." She muttered.

Sam looked back towards the puppet. "Saved? Wait! Are you alive?"

"Hehehe! That's a secret!" It laughed.

Sam took that answer as a firm "Yes" but she had no idea how that was possible. She figured it could be possible with the spirit's power, but on its own? She shoved the thought aside and just decided to go with it. Perhaps she would ask again later. Meanwhile, Shido was reserved to watching from the sidelines as Sam handled the spirit, polar opposite to the situation with Tohka a few days prior.

"Kotori, what the hell am I supposed to do?" He whispered.

"I don't know. Let Sam handle it for now, but we'll think of something soon." Kotori replied.

"So, pushing the debate of the physical possibilty of a sentient puppet to the side for a moment... What's your name?"

"Oh, how rude of me. I'm Yoshinon!" The puppet chirped.

"And I'm Yoshino..." The girl softly said.

"Yoshino and Yoshinon. I got it!" Sam winked at Yoshino in the same way she had when they first met. In response, Yoshino blushed and pulled her hood over her head and looked away. _"Really..?"_ Sam thought.

"Anyway, what's your name?" Yoshinon asked.

"Oh yes, of course. My name is Samanya Greenson. Pleased to make your acquaintance." She bowed low while she said this. "Just call me 'Sam' though, OK?"

"OK Sam! And why did you come here exactly? I see you are dressed up like the people that bully me and Yoshino, why is that?"

"Oh, this?" Sam retracted her wings, removed her wisor and held the gun out in front of her and flipped it over for Yoshinon to see. "I'm just here to protect that idiot." She nodded towards Shido.

Yoshino and Yoshinon both looked over at Shido, who just smiled nervously back. "And what's your name?" Yoshinon asked.

"My name's Shido. Shido Itsuka." He said.

"Shido... Why are you here, Shido?"

"Oh, I know it's sudden, but would you go on a date with me?"

"A date..?" It murmured.


	8. Thick mist

Finally! Fanfiction stop bugging out for long enough to upload this properly. For those of you who have read this new version already, then I'm sorry to waste your time, but for those of you that haven't, please read on!

-Ryan "Maltesers123" McGowan

-Chapter 8 (revised)

"Why would you want that, Shido?" Yoshinon asked.

Shido was surprised that that actually worked. "Oh, well, It's real simple. I'm asking, because I'm interested in you." Shido's patented spirit pickup line.

"Interested in me?"

"Yes, absolutely."

Yoshino turned around and put her back to Shido. "Should we trust him, Yoshinon?" She asked the puppet.

"Well, he seems OK. You can feel it too, right?" It replied.

"Yeah, I can feel it."

"And also, he's here with Sam, and we already trust Sam."

"That's true..."

Shido strained to make out what the two were saying, but they were talking so quietly that he quickly gave up on the prospect.

Yoshino turned around again and looked at Shido. "Hi Shido..." Yoshino said.

"Hi Yoshino!" Shido was fairly sure that the girl and the puppet had introduced themselves separately to Sam, so he decided to use the name that he overheard the girl using.

"Is it really true..?" Yoshino asked, barely audible.

"Yes, it's true. But I want to get to know more about you first, so please, will you sit down and talk to me for a bit?" Shido sat down on the tiled floor and patted the ground in front of him, inviting Yoshino to join him.

She whispered to her puppet again, "Can I?"

"Go on, I don't see why not, he seems to be telling the truth." It whispered back. Yoshino walked over to Shido and sat down in front of him, close enough to have a quiet conversation, but not so close as to be in each other's laps.

Sam and Kotori both sighed. "I'm glad that's over. This could have gotten difficult..." Kotori said.

"Yeah, I'm relieved they finally made a connection." Sam added.

Shido and Yoshino both sat talking for a few minutes. Shido was constantly cracking jokes and making small talk whenever the conversation slowed down, and Yoshino seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say. It was mostly a one-sided talk, with Yoshino rarely interrupting to ask a question or to confirm something that Shido had just said while he went on about himself, Sam, the world and more. It reminded Sam a lot of when they talked to Tohka as many of the same topics came up during their talk as well. This made perfect sense, however, as while the individualities of each spirit's position changed, the entire situation really didn't.

"Shido?" Yoshino asked.

"What is it, Yoshino?" Shido replied.

"Will you play with me for a little while?"

"Play with you?"

"Please?" Yoshino looked at Shido with big blue eyes. Shido gulped in response.

"Yeah sure, why not?" He said, slightly forcing himself.

"Yay!" Yoshino cheered. She stood up and turned towards Sam. "Will you come play with me too?"

"Uh, yeah. OK, I'll play with you." Sam quickly said.

Yoshino playfully tugged both of them towards a large metal frame. "The person who can stay at the top the longest wins!" She chirped.

Shido and Sam exchanged looks as Yoshino started to climb the first metal bars that made up the frame.

"I'm king of the castle!" Yoshinon sang. "I'm king of the castle!"

Sam shrugged and activated her wings. She flew up to the same height as Yoshino and started expertly hovering in place.

"No fair! That's cheating!" Yoshinon huffed.

"Shido?" Yoshino asked quietly.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." Shido couldn't help but smile as he started to climb the frame. As he climbed, Yoshinon continued his rant about how Sam was cheating while Yoshino softly cheered Shido on as he clambered up the last few bars.

When they were all eye-level with each other, Yoshino started to laugh. "Thank you Shido and Sam. This is the most fun I've ever had with humans."

"Yeah, I'm still the coolest, but you two are pretty cool as well." Yoshinon grinned.

As they continued to talk, Yoshino started to lose her balance and she suddenly fell backwards. Shido reached out and grabbed her hand, but he quickly found that he was now falling too. Fortunately, they were both caught by Sam who swooped down to grab them before they hit the ground. Shido and Yoshino ended up awkwardly near each other as Sam lowed them to the ground, but it appeared that Yoshino didn't think twice about it, as she was her perfectly bouncy self again after.

"Shido, you've got a problem!" Kotori shouted down Shido's earpiece.

"Sh-Shido?"

Tohka.

"Tohka! What are you doing here?" Shido fumbled for an explanation that he'd no doubt be asked for, but he had nothing.

"What am I doing here? What are _you_ doing here?" Tohka demanded.

"Wait, Tohka! It's not what it looks like! I can expla-"

"You!" Tohka bellowed and pointed at Yoshino who had hidden herself behind Sam. "What were you doing with Shido just now?"

"Tohka! Stop for a sec! It really isn't what it looks like!" Sam stepped up to meet Tohka's challenge.

Tohka slammed her foot down and a large crack opened up in the floor. It spread outwards towards Sam but stopped just before her feet. "Don't test me!"

"See what I mean?" Kotori asked. "You're looking at a rather unstable mental condition right now."

Tohka started to stride forwards towards Sam and Yoshino. A lot of other people would have probably backed down from Tohka's cold stare, but Sam stood firm.

"Her spirit powers are gradually returning to her." Kotori stated.

"Really? What do I do to stop it?" Shido looked up at Tohka as she stopped inches from Sam. She was much shorter than Sam, but just as intimidating.

Tohka turned away from Sam and looked at Shido. "How rude! Why didn't you tell me that the reason you left me all on my own was to meet this strange little girl?"

"Tohka..." Sam put a hand on Tohka's shoulder to try and calm her down, but Tohka angrily shrugged her away.

"Well, Shido?" Tohka asked impatiently.

"Ah- I- Well- That's not it at all, she's just a-"

Yoshinon pushed past Sam. "Hello there, angry lady!"

"My name's Tohka." She retorted.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, _T_ _ohka_ , but it seems like Shido's gotten bored with you." It said only to be met with a shocked expression from Tohka's face. It continued to talk in a sing-song fashion, like it was patronising her as much as it possibly could. "Open your eyes and see the truth: Shido stood you up to come play with me, I'd say that was fairly obvious."

Shido (as ever) was the only voice of reason present. "No, that's not tru-"

"Shido you shut your mouth right now." But was quickly silenced (as ever) by Tohka.

"OK." Shido mumbled, his mouth covered by Tohka's hand as she pushed him to the floor.

"I _do_ apologise though. It's never easy being second best, is it?" Yoshinon kept pushing Tohka more and more. "It's nothing to do with you Tohka, it's just that I'm so charming. But, it's not like you could blame Shido for blowing you off so he could come hang out with me, I am pretty adorable, after all."

"No!" Tohka shrieked. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! This can't be happening! It can't be!"

"You can scream all you want, but you're about to hear the brutal truth! Go on Shido, tell this poor thing she's not wanted anymore."

Tohka made a move to grab Yoshinon, but Sam intervened again. "Everybody shut up!" She screamed. Sam normally wasn't so assertive, but no-one else was going to rescue the situation, so it fell onto her to do it once more. Everyone fell silent as Sam took a few deep breaths. "Tohka!" Sam pointed at her. "Shut up! Stop screaming! And listen to me and Shido, we're your friends! Stop letting this puppet that you've never met before wind you up like this!"

Tohka shut up.

"Yoshinon!" Sam pointed at the puppet. "Where do you get off acting all friendly with Shido like that? You only just met him, and I can assure you firsthand that he is not _that_ charming."

Yoshinon, for once, also shut up.

"Shido!" Sam pointed at him as he lay on the floor. "Get off your ass, take control of the situation and do your damn job!"

Shido promptly stood up.

"Good, now let's all calm down, and handle this in a mature fashion, shall we?"

Nods all around.

"OK, Toh-"

Then the floor exploded.

"Oh for the love of God!" Sam's training immediately kicked in, and she grabbed Shido, Tohka and Yoshino (Shido and Tohka in her right hand and Yoshino in her left) and took off in the opposite direction. She dumped them all behind a particularly large bookshelf before readying her suit for combat.

"You three!" A shot slammed into Sam's shoulder and her shield system fizzled in response. "Stay here, I'll hold them off!" Sam launched herself back towards the bullet-spitting cloud of dust without a moment's hesitation. The AST had attacked them while Sam's guard was down, and so her response was a little sloppier than usual, but she had still gotten Shido and the other two spirits to relative safety which was a success in its own right.

Shido and the two spirits stayed crouched behind the bookshelf, all a little shaken from the sudden movement. "Kotori, what the hell do I do?"

"We've got to get you three out of there!" Kotori shouted. "Have you still got that beacon?"

"Yeah, I've still got it." Shido replied.

"OK, I need you to hold on to the spirits, so the Fraxinus can retrieve all of you."

"What about Sam?"

"I'll be fine!" Sam interrupted. Shido looked around and saw her hovering above him. She dropped to the floor with a heavy _thunk_ which cracked the floor slightly and looked back at him.

Tohka and Yoshino looked towards Shido and Sam for support. "It's gonna be OK, we'll all get out off this unhurt." Shido was doing his best to calm the two sprits while Sam looked for a way out of this mess.

She spotted an emergency staircase a short distance from them. It was much more strutcurally sound than where they were right now, but there was no cover between it and them. They would have to make a mad dash out in the open. "Kotori, what about retrieval?"

"Something's jamming it, no doubt the AST. You'll have to retreat on foot!"

 _"OK, this is our only shot then."_ Sam thought. "Everyone!" She made sure that her voice could be heard over the noise of gunfire and explosions. "Here's the plan:"

Another explosion caused all of them to duck their heads. Flakes from the ceiling began to rain down on them and debris started to land dangerously close to where they were huddled.

Sam pointed towards the staircase. "We're going to get to that staircase, and go to the bottom floor. We'll escape after that, and I'll protect you all the best I can!"

Shido nodded. "It's the best chance we have, no way are we fighting our way out of this."

Both the spirits nodded in agreement.

"All right, move it or lose it, people!" Sam shouted. The five of them (including Yoshinon) sprinted towards the staircase where the emergency exist sign glowed a very inviting green.

They had all made it to the exit when a loud crash caused them to stop. The air was eerily silent before another crash sounded. Then, out of the thick dust cloud, protruded a very, VERY large gun. It appeared to be mounted on two legs at the front and a wheel at the back, and the three operators were protected by a vast metal-and-glass shield that extended around the gleaming barrel. It was, in short, one of the ground force's anti-tank guns.

Sam stared straight at the gun, and the gun stared straight back at her. There was a moment of silence that hung heavily in the air. No one or no thing dared to move.

"Everybody get down!" Sam roared.

The gun roared in response.

Sam was thrown into the back wall of the staircase and went straight through it, the wall offering very little resistance against the power of the gun.

"Sam!" Shido and Tohka shouted in unison.

Yoshino took longer to process what just happened, but as soon as she had, she started to cry.

They all stood there for a moment, unsure of how to carry on.

"Come on! I'm sure she'll be fine! Sam won't go down that easily!" Tohka looked at Shido for support. "Right?"

"Yeah, you're right. Let's keep going!" Shido took off again, leading the spirits down the winding staircase as quickly as he could, just in case the gun decided to follow them. They dashed down the stairs two at a time and found themselves at the bottom floor before long, and as they all burst out into the open they saw Sam lying on the floor a little way from the back of the large apartment store. Her visor was completely shattered, a large portion of the armour around her chest was cracked and broken and one of her wings was completely gone, the other was barely in one piece. Her eyes were closed but, thankfully, she did appear to be breathing. Shido rushed forward and was shortly followed by Tohka and Yoshino as they came to help.

"Tohka, I need you to carry Sam, she's too heavy for me." Shido pleaded.

"Huh? Yes, of course!" Tohka bent down to pick up Sam, and even though her armour was heavy, Tohka was able to lift her by using the strength she had as a spirit.

"Kotori, what about now? Is it still jammed?" Shido hoped that his own beacon hadn't been damaged in the blast, but there was no way he could really check.

"Yes! It's still jammed!" Kotori replied. Her voice was wavering. She was worried too.

"Tohka, Yoshino!" Shido shouted. "We need to get far enough away from the AST so Kotori can retrieve us!"

Puzzled looks from Tohka and Yoshino. Shido mentally slapped his forehead. _"Of course, they don't know about Ratatoskr."_

"What I mean is: We need to get far enough away from them-" Shido pointed in the general direction of the AST. "-so my sister can save us." Shido stood up again and started to run towards a building that he judged would probably be out of the jammer's range, he hoped, but stopped when he noticed that Yoshino wasn't following him. "Yoshino?"

Yoshino looked to be on the verge of tears. "Even though I've done nothing to help you, you're both trying so hard to help me..."

Shido and Tohka both listened intently.

"Especially you, Tohka. I've done nothing but worry you since you arrived, and Yoshinon has done nothing but anger you."

"It's OK, I forgive you." Tohka said softly.

"No, it's not OK. They're after me, and me alone, but because of my selfishness, I got my friends hurt." She looked towards Sam, who was draped over Tohka's shoulder, unconscious. "So that's why I'm going to help you three escape the only way I can!"

"Zadkiel!" An incredible flurry of ice surrounded Yoshino as she shouted and a thick mist spread outwards that froze whatever it touched. It was a brilliant display. When it ended, Yoshino appeared, riding a large hare that had demonic red eyes, matted fur and monstrous teeth and stood at least 15 feet tall. The hare also emanated that same cold mist.

"Get out of here, me and Yoshinon will keep them away from you!" Before Shido could stop them, Yoshino and the hare (which Shido was assuming was Yoshinon) bounded off towards the AST while letting out a blood curdling scream.

"Yoshino!" Shido screamed.

"Come on, Shido. I want an explanation later, but this is our only chance!" Tohka pulled his eyes away from Yoshino as she attacked. Shido reluctantly followed, knowing that there was nothing he could do, and that he would probably just get in Yoshino's way.

As they moved away from the battle, Shido looked back once more, and he would later swear blind that he heard Yoshino say that it was all right in an attempt to sooth him.

Shortly after, the hare exploded into a cloud of cold mist, and Yoshino became lost, leaving the AST without a successful result once more. However, as Origami scanned the wreckage, a cute puppet caught her eye. It was a rabbit, with silly eyes, silly ears and a cute eye patch. Curious, Origami decided to keep it, and continued scanning the wreckage for any sign of Hermit, Princess (who had been detected in the same place, oddly) or Shido Itsuka.


	9. Dreamscape

Hello! If when reading this, you get confused as to what's happening and why it's happening the way it is, then you might have missed Chapter 8's update. The updated version completely changes the events (well, kinda) of the encounter with Yoshino, and is VERY different to the original upload of Chapter 8. If you have only read a chapter 8 under the name of "Shut up!" then you have only read the out-dated version. If, however, you have read a chapter 8 under the title of "Thick mist" then you're good to go!

I'm sorry to disrupt the story like this, but I cannot stress enough how important this is! "Thick mist" is much better written and much better paced as opposed to my original chapter 8, so don't feel like it's a chore to re-read chapter 8 if you missed the update.

Anyway, that's enough out of me! Please enjoy DAL:SS Chapter 9: Dreamscape

-Chapter 9

 _Darkness._

 _Never-ending._

 _Stretching out before her, all around her, inside her._

 _Sam couldn't feel her legs, or her arms, or her hair. She couldn't move her head. She wasn't sure she even had a head. She wasn't living, just existing. Existing in a vast, featureless void._

 _"Hmmm, this is worse than I hoped."_

 _A voice. It was muffled and far away. Sam couldn't make out who it belonged to._

 _"Yes, it appears as if her entire spinal cord is broken..."_

 _Another voice. Deeper. More masculine._

 _Sam tried to call out against the darkness, but quickly realised she had no mouth to project her screams._

 _"What should we do?" The deeper voice said._

 _"Well, plan A is certainly out-of-the-question. We'll just have to go with plan B." The higher voice replied._

 _Sam struggled against the shackles of her reality once more, and her right arm materialised. She tried to pull her left arm free of her mental binds as well, and it too materialised. Sam looked forward again, and the tiniest pinprick of light pierced the darkness._

 _It was warm, and inviting._

 _Sam struggled once more, willing her entire body free._

 _"Her heart rate is elevated. I think she's waking up!" A new voice. Feminine, but not quite as shrill as the high-pitched one._

 _"What?" The deeper voice once more. "Sedate her!"_

 _Sam continued to resist the reality she was in. If she could just free her body, then she could move towards that light and it's healthy glow. She could escape the cold emptiness around her. She fought once more, and her body materialised. She could feel her hair, her fingers, her toes._

 _She could move._

 _She pushed forwards, and to her surprise, she started floating towards the small, pulsing light under the smallest ounce of thrust. She pushed again. A little bit more thrust. She pushed again. A little more. The light slowly started to grow and brighten, and the warmth it gave off was even more soothing the closer she got._

 _"The sedative is ready, sir." The lower pitched feminine voice again._

 _"Should I administer it?" Asked the masculine voice._

 _"Yes, before it's too late." The high-pitched voice replied._

 _Sam was so close to the ball of light that it had grown to the size of a basketball, and the warm tendrils of light that it gave off licked Sam's arms. Sam felt a tingling sensation up and down her entire body, like when you get into a warm bath after being out in the cold for hours._

 _It was nice._

 _She reached out to grab the ball, but before she could do so, she felt something sharp in her eye. The pain would have been excruciating, had it not felt far-off and alien to her. It almost felt like she was watching someone else, like the pain wasn't hers to experience, wasn't hers to feel._

 _Wasn't her body._

 _Sam felt reality tug at her arms once more, but it was much stronger than before._

 _"No!" She screamed, suddenly able to. "Don't pull me back!" She thrust out once more to grab the ball, but it was gone._

 _She was alone once more in the empty space._

 _Her arms were gone._

 _Her legs were gone._

 _Her body was gone._

* * *

"Ah!" Sam threw herself upright in a panic. She was sitting in the Fraxinus' sickbay, on one of the many clean, white beds. The mattress was soft beneath her, and the blanket that still covered her legs was smooth and light. She looked down at herself and grabbed at her arms, her legs, her chest. Once she was happy that she was all there, she allowed herself to relax slightly, and sunk back into the arms of the bed frame. "Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a..." Sam quickly fell back asleep, her mind drifting off the moment she closed her eyes.

* * *

 _Another void, but not in the same sense as the last dream she had. In this dream, she appeared to be in Tenguu city, but the buildings and signs and sky were all void of colour, making the normally bustling city square look like a wasteland. Sam found that this time, she had a body and, better still, she had her armour on. Her training kicked in and she immediately lowered her stance. She slid her visor over her eyes and readied her on-board systems, but when she reached for her rifle, an ominous cackle reverberated down the streets and bounced off of the buildings, sending a chill down her spine._

 _"Well, aren't you a curious one?"_

 _Sam spun around, and came face-to-face with a girl in a red and black maid's outfit, sporting black twintails and a vicious smile. Sam leapt back, putting distance between her and the_ _eerie girl._

 _"Don't you think that's a little rude?"_

 _Sam turned again, and the same girl appeared in front of her. She looked back at where she had been standing and, sure enough, the girl was still over there. Sam backpedalled once more, but_ _she was quickly surrounded by hundreds of the same girl._

 _"What's going on here?" Sam demanded. She tried to fly up, but another copy of the same girl appeared above her._

 _"Where do you think you're going?" A vicious kick, and Sam went flying into the concrete._

 _her head was spinning, and she felt groggy and exhausted._ "What's going on?" _She thought._ "That kick wasn't _that_ hard." _She rose slowly and forced her legs under her. The road was cracked_ _and broken where she landed, and a large chunk of tarmac was going to need replacing._

 _"Hahaha! You don't get it, do you?" The girls laughed in unison. One singular mass of noise deafened and choked Sam._

 _"Welcome to my world!" One of the girls stepped forward, away from the group. She looked identical to all the others, but the way she acted indicated that she held some kind of authority._ _Sam assumed that she was the original one, and the rest were clones of some kind, but at this point it was all just theory. "You're inside my shadow!"_

 _"Your shadow?" Sam managed to ask._

 _"Yes! Isn't it beautiful?" The girl laughed and spun around, admiring the dim scenery. "But that's not why I brought you here today. No no no, you're here for a very different reason."_

 _Sam sensed that the girl was going to go on whether she wanted her to or not, so she just saved her strength and focused on staying upright._

 _"We're here, because you don't make any sense. You know that?"_

 _Sam, again, just let her go on and didn't bother answering._

 _"I mean, all the things you've done, all the stuff you've learnt, all the adventures you've been on with dear little Shido."_

 _"H-How do you know about all that?" Sam stammered._

 _"Easy! The moment you came here, I read all of your memories. It's quite a draining power, but it's certainly worth it!" The girl laughed again which made Sam feel even more anxious. "And_ _my my, haven't you been busy? Your old life, the other spirits, dearest little Shido. All of it. But there's one thing I don't get."_

 _Sam knew she was falling into a trap, but she had to know. "What is it?"_

 _"How you do it!" The girl chirped. "You learned an entire language in less than two years, became part of an incredibly contrived string of coincidences and then ended up here!"_

 _The girl spun, her long red and black dress billowing out while her twintails danced through the air. "I mean, what you're doing is inhuman!"_

 _Sam went dizzy, and she doubled over. Sharp jolts of pain behind her eyes only made things worse. It was as if she was having some absolutely horrific migraine that threatened to make her_ _pass out._

 _The girl started to count with her fingers. "You can break concrete with just your bare hands, even though you have no muscle to speak of. You can survive things that no human should be_ _allowed to survive, and you have a genius-level intellect. Which of those things sound odd to you? All of them? You're right!" The girl shrieked with laughter again._

 _Sam shook with more intensity._

 _"You're not human! I don't know what you are." The girl sighed. "But that's why you're here. You're going to help me find out what you are, and then I'm going to eat you and take your strength as my own. Then I'm going to eat dearest little Shido too!" The girl howled maniacally, the horrible tones filling the space. Filling Sam's ears._

 _Filling Sam's mind._

 _"No."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"No!" Sam stood shakily up. "I AM human! I will NOT give you Shido! THIS IS MY DREAM!" Sam ignited her two gauntlets. Two four foot plasma blades extended from her forearms above her hands, both_ _glowing a soft blue and crackling with energy. Sam squared up defiantly and pointed her right blade at the girl. "Your move."_

 _The girl rushed Sam down, leaving no time to spare. She attacked with the butts of two guns: A fancy-looking flintlock pistol and flintlock rifle, but Sam easily blocked the wild blows._ _She bobbed left and brought her right arm sailing down. It cut right through the girl's arm and immediately cauterised the wound. She expected the girl to stagger back, but she caught Sam_ _with a powerful strike from the pistol in her left hand and forced Sam onto the back foot._

 _"If you want to start talking, talking about things that don't make sense, talking about things in a way that you hope would make me scared and weak and afraid..."_

 _Sam stared at the girl._

 _"...Then you have to make me break first!"_

 _The clones still surrounded them both, some on the ground with their own weapons ready, and some hovering in the air, looking down with malice and anger. The girl spat. "I'm impressed!_ _You being able to fight from within my shadow only further proves my point about you not being human!"_

 _That same pain filled Sam's head, but she forced it back. She couldn't let herself listen to that girl right now._

 _"But, let's see how long you can make it last..." The girl and all of the clones suddenly grew ten times larger. Sam looked around her, and everywhere she looked, the clone's eyes looked_ _back at her: One red and normal, the other yellow, and like a clock._

 _"...Shall we?" The voice echoed inside Sam's head and rocked her to the core._

 _Sam ignited her wings and pushed her suit as far as it would go. "Let's do this!"_

* * *

Sam jolted awake once more, but it was not of her own accord this time. She felt someone's hand resting on her shoulder. She followed the small arm upwards and saw Kotori's face looking deeply fearful. "Hey, Kotori." Sam strained. Her voice was hoarse and dry, as if she'd been shouting for hours.

"Sam! You've been shouting for hours!" She looked right at Sam. "I'm so glad you finally woke up!"

"Heh, yeah..." Sam looked back down at herself and was met with a very battered sight. She had cuts and bruises all along her torso and several smaller cuts up her arms and legs. _"That's strange, I don't remember those being there when I woke up earlier..."_

"Kotori?" Sam managed to ask.

"Yeah." Replied a slightly tearful Kotori.

"Where's Shido?"

"Oh, he's with Hermit right now. Come on, I'll show you."

 _"Aaaaand right back to cold Commander mode. Great."_ Sam thought. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and made a move to stand up. She was actually quite surprised when she found herself able to stand up and walk with relative ease. Intrigued, she clenched her hand. Indeed, her grip seemed to be fine too, even better perhaps. She quickly dressed using the pile of clothes that had been laid out for her: Simple T-shirt and jeans, Sam's favourite, and followed Kotori out of the door and down to the bridge, all the while pondering over her two vivid dreams.


	10. Status report

-Chapter 10

The door slid open for Sam as she entered the ship's bridge.

"As you can see, Shido and Hermit are together again." Kotori pointed at the large display. "Supposedly, they're looking for Yoshinon. Hermit lost it when fighting the AST the other day, and she was out looking for it by herself when Shido stumbled upon her." On the display, Shido and Yoshino were doing their best shifting through the trash and rubble in order to find Yoshinon. They weren't allowed too close to the department store as a large construction fence had been erected around it, and no unauthorised personnel were allowed access, but they were thoroughly searching everywhere that they could go.

"I see. So that big hare _was_ Yoshinon then?" Sam asked.

"Her angel?"

"Uh, I guess?"

"Yes, Zadkiel can be summoned using Yoshinon or without it's help, but she summoned it using Yoshinon the other day."

They both went back to watching the display for a little while, before Sam asked the question that she was dreading the answer to. "How is it?"

Kotori sighed. "It's in the workshop. Kannazuke!"

"Yes, Commander?" Kannazuke stood to attention.

"Go down there with her, will you?"

"At once!" Kannazuke descended the steps of Kotori's raised position and beckoned Sam to follow him.

They were walking down the vast halls of the Fraxinus when Sam pressed Kannazuke for some greater detail. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"Very." Was all he said. Sam dropped her head. "But, it's not all bad."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, but not getting too hopeful.

"There's always that prototype." Kannazuke suggested.

"I wish." Sam snorted.

"Well, why not?"

She sighed. "Because it's experimental technology, that only exists in theory to most. It's never once been tested, and it could all-too-easily end up killing me." She lifted her head up and looked at him, who was looking at her whilst walking backwards. "I'd _like_ to get it to work, but it's going to take more than just wishful thinking."

They stopped in front of the workshop's door. It looked like all the other doors on the ship, two polished plates that opened in the middle, with the top plate lifting up into the ceiling and the bottom plate descending down into the floor. Sam walked through but Kannazuke waited outside, he knew what was coming.

Sam dropped to her knees. There on the table in front of her, was her armour. It was cracked, broken, and in some places, completely missing. Wordlessly, she stood back up and shambled over to further inspect it, but her heart just sunk more and more. She picked up what was left of the breast plate. It's entire left side was missing and there was a web of cracks that ran horizontally along it. She picked up the retaining band of her visor, the glass completely gone. As she continued to inspect the pieces, she made a mental list of all the things that were broken beyond repair or missing entirely. _"Left wing, Left spalder and railgun, left knee guard, right gauntlet..."_ She picked through the pieces until she found what she was really dreading.

The suit's main source of power: The realiser, capable of converting magical energy into energy the suit used, was completely fried and irreparable.

Sam threw it to the floor in anger. "Damn it! Damn it damn it damn it!" She collapsed into a nearby stool as Kannazuke walked in.

"Shouting like that isn't going to help anybody, and you know that."

Sam let out a long sigh. "This is years of my life, wasted." Kannazuke looked at her pitifully. "And do you know why? One artillery round. One! I thought I made this thing stronger than that, but I guess not."

"Well, it WAS point-blank." Kannazuke thought out loud.

"Not helping."

They both turned around to look at Kotori, who had just walked in through the door.

"Commander?" Kannazuke prompted Kotori to go on.

"Sam! Get off your butt right now!"

Sam groaned, but she complied.

"Good. Now, let's fix this. Sam?"

"Well, the realiser is completely shot, the wiring is either gone or barely functioning and the shield system is damaged, but I could fix that one at least."

Kotori looked at Sam expectantly.

"The overall integrity of the suit is OK. It definitely seems that the shield and upper left portion of the suit took the brunt of the damage, but my left wing is clipped."

"And how do we fix it?" She pressed.

Sam scratched her head. "I don't know... We could build a new realis-"

"No."

"No? Did you not just hear me? We've got no other choice, the suit is-"

Kotori pointed at the blue light in the corner, where it was suspended in water and surrounded by tinted glass in an attempt to reduce the staggering amount of light it gave off.

"The fusion core?" Sam nearly choked. When Kannazuke had brought it up just now, she merely shrugged the notion away, but for the Commander to completely, one hundred percent seriously suggest using it caused a different reaction.

"Yes. You've already been developing a suit capable, haven't you?"

Sam rubbed her eyes, suddenly tired. "Yes, but it's never been tested! To just drop it into a suit and start using it would come with an absurd level of risk! So many more calculations need to be made, so many more trials need to be done, so much more refining needs to happen!"

"Then do it!" Kotori slammed her hands down on the desk.

"I can't!" Sam kicked the stool in frustration. "Do you have any idea what a ridiculous notion that is? Yeah sure, the suit wouldn't be too hard to make, but adapting the core to fit and power the entire suit by it's own is absolutely-"

Sam gasped. "Oh my God." She rushed over to her designing table and grabbed a clean blueprint.

She started fumbling blindly for a pencil when Kotori interrupted her train of thought, "Sam?"

"Shh!" Sam spat. The image was so clear in her head that she felt as if she could just pluck it from her thoughts and place it onto the table, but she feared that by talking it would dissipate. Her hand finally clasped a pencil and she immediately took to the paper, drawing lines and circles and writing all sorts of calculations, equations and formulas as quickly as she could.

About 10 minutes later, Kannazuke and Kotori standing politely by the whole time, Sam leant back from her work and presented it to Kotori.

Kotori recoiled at the sight. "Sam, I'm happy for you, but I have no idea what any of this means."

Kannazuke butted in, but he couldn't make any sense of Sam's handiwork either. She mentally rolled her eyes. "Look here." Sam pointed at a drawing of the proposed chestpiece unit. It looked similar to the one she used to use, except there was a circle drawn directly in the centre, between her breasts. "This is where the fusion core and capacitor was going to go, providing power to the whole suit. In my original design, this was very large in order to produce enough energy to power the suit and all of it's systems. It made the suit dangerous for a load of reasons that I won't bother going into, because it's unimportant."

Sam pointed to another part of the blueprint: her right thigh. "In this design, I put one here, one in the other thigh, and one in the chestpiece." Sam turned around and grabbed another paper. "This is the original design for the core." Sam flipped the paper over. "And this is the new design."

Kotori and Kannazuke both stared blankly at the blueprints, and they couldn't really make anything out. However, Kannazuke did notice that the two designs looked almost identical, but one was a lot smaller. "The new design is much smaller than the old one, why is that?" He pointed out.

Sam spun the stool around and grabbed the first blueprint again. "I had to fix the issue of heat and instability, so I made the cores smaller. Each core now puts out about a third of the energy that one of the original cores put out, but individually, they generate a lot less heat."

She turned the paper around to look at the new design. "It's not going to be as efficient as my original design, and quite a bit heavier, but at least it'll work!" Sam started grinning like a schoolgirl who's just been told that they got what they wanted for their birthday.

"How long will it take?" Kotori asked.

Sam looked over at the pieces lying on the desk and then over at the fusion core in the corner. "Considering the suit's mostly built already." Sam scratched her chin. "And assuming I don't run into any problems when altering the fusion core, which I'll have to do mostly on my own..." Sam did some more mental calculations and estimates. "We could probably get the wings built within a few days..."

Sam looked up at Kotori. "A few weeks?"

Kotori's expression clearly outlined that she had thought it would take a lot less time. "A few weeks?"

"Maybe a month, absolutely tops." Sam proposed.

"And there's nothing else you can use?"

Sam thought for a moment. "There's always _that_."

At first, Kotori was confused what Sam meant, but then she remembered. "No."

"Well then a few weeks is the best we're getting, I'm afraid." Sam looked down at her hands and cracked her knuckles. "I better get to work, hadn't I?"

"Yes, I guess you better." Kotori looked away, lost in thought.

"Commander?" Kannazuke asked softly.

Kotori blinked once and her gaze returned to him. "Nothing, don't worry about it. Sam?" Sam perked up again. "Ratatoskr's going to give you all the help you need, OK?"

"Yeah Yeah, sure, whatever." Sam waved her away and got to work on some more designs, her pencil scribbling furiously as she developed and expanded her plans even further.

"Well, it looks like that's our queue to leave." Kannazuke said.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Kotori replied. "Come on, let's go see how Shido's doing." She started walking towards the door, followed by Kannazuke, but she stopped to say one more thing to Sam, "Good luck!" But Sam didn't appear to acknowledge her.


	11. Cowardice and strength

-Chapter 11

"Why _did_ you deny her the use of another realiser, Commander?" Kannazuke asked. The only other sounds that could be heard were the two's footsteps and the gentle humming of the lights as they walked back towards the bridge.

Kotori looked up at him, who was walking by her side. "It's because of that dream." She stated.

"The one with Nightmare?"

"Yes." She yawned and stretched. "I don't know why, but I have a terrible feeling about it. I fear it's going to happen again..." They walked in silence for a little longer as she left the implications of what she said to hang heavily in the air.

"You really think she'll have another run-in with Nightmare?" He asked, breaking the dreadful silence.

She didn't answer verbally this time, she just simply nodded.

"And remind me again why this new power source is important?" He pressed.

She huffed. "It's because of Nightmare's ability. Being able to steal one's magical potential. I'm worried she'll be able to steal the suit's as well."

Kannazuke thought for a moment. "So you're having her use physical energy instead, so she can't steal it?"

"That's the theory." Kotori said with a shrug.

* * *

"Why isn't Sam with you today?" Yoshino quietly asked.

"Oh, I think she's still recovering after the other day." Shido replied. They were both still looking for Yoshinon while the rain poured heavily down on them, soaking them right down to the bone. Yoshino's coat helped, and so did Shido's umbrella, but it wasn't perfect.

Yoshino's eyes widened and her mouth started to tremble. "Don't worry Yoshino, Sam's OK. She just needs a bit more rest, that's all." He reassured.

"If you say so." She mumbled, unsure.

They continued to pick through the trash and rubble in search of Yoshinon, but as they kept going, Shido started to develop some doubts. They moved on from the alleyway where they were looking and moved to another one. This alleyway was slightly wider and better lit, and it also housed some small shops and stalls, but they were all closed from the fighting. About thirty minutes in, Yoshino's stomach started to growl with hunger.

"You hungry?" Shido asked. Yoshino shook her head, but her stomach said otherwise as it growled again. Her face went bright red with embarrassment and she ducked her head under her hood. "Come on, let's get something to eat." Shido stood upright and offered his hand to Yoshino. She took it in her own, and he helped her up. "Hmmm, it looks like the fighting put these shops out of order." He stated as he looked around. "We'll just have to eat at my place."

Yoshino poked her head out from under her hood and smiled slightly. "Thank you."

Shido smiled back and simply said, "No problem."

They both walked out of the alley and onto the main street which was, despite everything, bustling with activity. Yoshino was surprisingly calm, unlike Tohka who completely flipped out the first time she was confronted with so many people, and she happily strolled alongside Shido as they weaved between people, cars and buildings.

A little while later, after walking down various streets and roads, they reached the front door of Shido's house from where it stood by the side of a small road. The road was high up and overlooked the vast city below as it wound up and down the surrounding mountains, hills and troughs.

"This is your home?" Yoshino asked as she was led in by Shido.

"Yep. Please feel free to treat it as your own." He followed Yoshino in and closed the door, a soft _thunk_ bouncing down the short hallway and into the kitchen as he did so.

"I've never had a home..." She said under her breath, so quietly that he could barely hear her.

"Really? That's... Quite sad, actually." Shido said as he walked into the kitchen. Yoshino sat down on the couch a little way from him and tucked her legs under her; she turned around and rested her head on the back of the couch as she looked at him.

"Only if you've already had one, so you start missing it. If you've never had a home in the first place, then not having one isn't so bad." She said, half-muttering.

Shido blinked twice at Yoshino's uncharacteristic display. "I guess..." He turned back to the mixing bowl and started making a simple omelette for Yoshino.

After a few seconds of thoughtful silence, Shido spoke up again, "That puppet must be important to you, most people by now would have given up and bought a new one."

"Yes, she's my hero." Yoshino stated.

"She's your hero?" Shido queried.

"Yes. She's what I want to be one day. She's strong and brave and fearless, she's not weak and scared like me. I just want to be a little more like her, always there for people. If I could do that, then I'd be so happy, but I can't, and I'll never be able to..."

Shido took his eyes away from the mixing bowl and leant over the counter that separated the kitchen and the sitting room.

"She's my hero." Yoshino repeated.

"Well..." Shido started. "I don't know about all that. To be honest, I like you just the way you are."

Yoshino gasped and pulled her hood over her head in embarassment again.

Shido, clearly oblivious to the signs of other people, asked, "Hey, is something wrong?"

"Oh, well, No-one's ever said that before. thank you, it's nice." She said gently.

"Did you rehearse that line? Or did it just come to you?" Kotori said, full of banterous spite.

"Why does it matter to you?" Shido said into his earpiece, but Kotori was paying attention to something else, and he doubted that she had even registered his remark. He turned back to his cooking and vaguely noticed that Yoshino was watching him the whole time, but didn't say anything.

* * *

"Sam?" Kotori's face appeared on the monitor where it hung on the wall.

Sam looked up from one of the many tables in the workshop. "Yeah?"

"I hate to interrupt you like this, but I'd like for you to go down and talk with Tohka and the rest of them."

Sam was slightly annoyed that Kotori was interrupting her important work because of Tohka's hissy fit earlier, but she decided to hear her out. "Why?"

"Because Tohka's still upset. Reine was talking to her earlier, and I think it would benefit everyone if you, Shido and Hermit were to talk it out with Tohka."

Sam huffed and put her tools down. "How is me being there gonna help? This right here-" Sam motioned to the machinery and blueprints on the table in front of her. "-is probably more important."

"Sam, I'm not asking you, I'm ordering you. Tohka trusts you just as much as Shido, remember?" Even though Kotori had labeled it as an order, her tone implied that she was pleading for Sam to do as she said.

"Fine, I'll go down and babysit like I always do." Sam sighed and stood up. "Can you at least teleport me home so I can get changed? These overalls aren't the best for polite conversations."

"Thanks Sam." Kotori said, almost guiltily.

"It's..." Sam paused. "Not a problem."

* * *

Shido and Yoshino had finished their simple meal without any incident, and were now both sitting on Shido's couch, talking. The rain still came down heavily outside and the clouds were dark and thick, but it was warm and dry inside.

"Yoshino, why don't you ever try and fight back when the AST attack you?" Shido asked. "There's gotta be a reason for it."

Yoshino looked down at her feet and put her hands in her lap. "Yes, there is. The thing is, I don't like pain, or being scared."

Shido sat and listened quietly while she went on.

"I can't stand it. But I bet everyone hates those things. How could they not? Any creature that feels has to despise them, don't you think?" Her eyes remained downcast and her hands remained firmly planted in her lap as she talked.

"Yeah, maybe. One would hope so, at least." Shido answered.

"Then again, I'm just a big scaredy cat." Yoshino cast her eyes upwards and looked at the wall. "When I'm scared, I freeze up. I can't think, or move, or speak. I'm so afraid. It's like I can't do anything at all, except stand there, hoping someone will save me." Shido clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth. He was downright disgusted at what the girl thought of herself, as he knew it wasn't fair, and he was determined to do something about it. "It's awful. If I wasn't such a coward I might be able to fight back. But, I am. Always have been. The truth is, I'm nothing like Yoshinon, when I'm in danger, she's right there by my side. Always. She gives me the courage I don't have on my own."

Yoshino looked down at her feet again. "She's my hero." She repeated once more. "That's why I won't fight."

Shido walked over and crouched down in front of her, placing his hand on her head as he did so. He delicately rubbed her head in a soothing manner.

"Wh-Why are you petting me?" Yoshino's cheeks went bright red, but she managed to look at him, who was low enough to be at head-height.

"Come on, I'm here to protect you." Her eyes widened and she recoiled slightly in surprise. "And I'll make sure we find Yoshinon, but, you don't have to rely on her to protect you any more. 'Cause I'm gonna be your hero now." Her mouth formed a large "o" as she gasped, taken aback by Shido's generosity. _"That's right, it doesn't matter if she's a spirit. A girl as kind as she is deserves that and so much more that I only hope I can give her."_ He thought.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she said, "Thank you so much for your kindness."

Shido smiled and nodded his head subtly. "Sure."

"Hey, don't you go forgetting all about us now, Shido!" Sam poked her head in through the door, and Tohka's head appeared just beneath her's a moment later.

Shido jerked his head back from where it had gotten quite close to Yoshino's. "Sam! Tohka!"

"Sam!" Yoshino chirped as she turned around.

"Shido, what were you doing just then?" Tohka asked. She was flaring up, but she wasn't furious. Yet.

"Come on Tohka." Sam entered the room and tugged Tohka after her. Shido shot up and moved a little way from Yoshino, putting his back up against the wall, all-too-wary of Tohka's stare as she sat down on the couch and Sam moved into the kitchen.

"Tea?" She called out.

"Yeah, why not?" Shido strained, smiling nervously while Tohka continued to incessantly glare at him.

"Yoshino?"

"Yes please."

"Tohka?"

Tohka didn't say anything.

"OK, I guess not then..." The sound of Sam making the tea was the only thing that pierced the silence. Yoshino found herself in the middle of a fierce, one-sided staring contest between Shido and Tohka, so she quietly snuck off and went over to Sam.

"Sam?" She softly asked.

"What is it, Yoshino?" Sam replied.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, that's just how Tohka is. She'll calm down in a second."

Yoshino frowned and held onto Sam's arm. "She's scary."

"So, care to tell me what this is all about, Shido?" Tohka asked harshly.

"It's..." Shido sighed. "Complicated."

Tohka made a show of looking at an invisible watch. "I'm in no rush, and you certainly aren't either. So please, tell me."

"Yeah, good point." Shido sat down cross-legged on the floor, opposite Tohka. "Kotori? Should I?" He asked under his breath.

Kotori let out a long sigh. "You might as well. There's no other way you're getting out of this..."

He took a deep breath, before locking his eyes with Tohka's, determined to meet her challenge.

"Let me tell you about Ratatoskr..."


	12. Dropped secrets

Kind of a short chapter for this update, I'm afraid, but between everything that's been going on for me personally, I haven't had the most amount of time to write. The next chapter after this one should be a long one though, so start looking forward to that!

Anyway, Thanks for following DAL:SS as always!

-Chapter 12

"Ratatoskr?" Tohka queried, her face becoming slightly less tense and accusatory.

"Yes, it's the organisation that..." Shido thought about his words carefully. "...helps me. They're the reason I was able to meet you, Tohka."

"Really?" She asked, surprised.

"Yes. They're also responsible for Sam being here. If it weren't for them, then Sam and I would never have met."

"Oh." Tohka looked thoughtful for a moment. "Wait, that still doesn't answer my question!" She snapped.

"I know, I'm getting there." Shido looked towards Yoshino, who's head just about poked over the counter between them, and smiled. "The reason I was with her, is because that's my purpose in this world: To help and protect those who need it, but especially spirits like you or her."

"But, when you said you were interested in me..." Tohka trailed off, unable to finish the question.

"I really did mean it." Shido carefully grabbed Tohka's shoulders, and she looked back up at him. "Just because they let me get close to you in the first place, doesn't mean that they tell me how to act or feel. All my feelings for you are real, Tohka." He let go of her shoulders and rocked backwards into a sitting position. "If I didn't truly like you, then I'd never put myself through so much to protect you."

Tohka's eyes widened. _"That's exactly what Reine said earlier."_

"As for Yoshino, she's a spirit like you, and she needs my help. She needs all of our help. But, unlike you, she can't fight for herself, so she needs all the support I can give her." He sighed. "But I just fear that what I can do isn't enough, so I need you to help me. Please, let me help others like I helped you." It was Shido's turn to look at the floor anxiously. After all, he had no idea how Tohka was going to react, given how much of a loose cannon she could sometimes be.

Tohka's heart was in anguish. She was torn between her own selfish love for him, and the awe that his kindness placed in her. _"How could I have turned my back on him like that? The man who saved me; The man I love."_ She looked up and bit her lip. "Shido..." She started, but found herself unable to continue.

Sam felt Yoshino's grip lessen, and she watched as Yoshino went over to the tormented Tohka. She knelt down in front of her and tapped Tohka's leg to get her attention. "Um, excuse me for interrupting, but I have to apologise." She said delicately. "I'm sorry, Tohka, for all of this." She gestured to the room around her. "Because of my own weakness, I ruined something beautiful."

Tohka gasped. Yoshino's words were too similar to her own.

"I'm so deeply sorry for all the trouble that Yoshinon and I have caused you, but what Shido says is true."

Tohka looked up at Yoshino, and saw the tears streaking down her face.

"I can feel it between you two: An unbreakable bond, linking you through time and space. This feeling between you, is something that I could never match, and, I'm honestly jealous of you."

Tohka's own breathing started to waver, and the smallest trickle of a tear appeared in her eye. _"Why-Why am I crying?"_ Tohka tried to wipe her tears, but more just fell. Yoshino shuffled back and Shido filled the now-vacant space on the floor.

"Tohka-" He started, but was cut off as Tohka leant forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

"Shido!" She shouted between tears. "I promise to never doubt you again! I'm sorry I was so selfish, and I lashed out before knowing what really happened. I'll never leave you like that ever again. Because..." Tohka pulled back just enough to look him in the eye. "I love you!"

Shido smiled and pulled her close again. "I know." He whispered.

* * *

After a moment, Sam wandered over to the three of them and presented a pot of tea. "Tea? I made enough for everyone, in the end." Her mouth formed a small smile, but she found something wrenching at her heart. _"I can't right now. I can't ever. And you know that, Sam."_ She mentally scolded herself for her feelings.

"Thank you, Sam." Yoshino said, the first to get up.

Shido pulled himself away from Tohka. "And I promise to never let you down again." He said, helping her onto her feet.

She smiled and let him help her up. "I believe you." She said.

"Oh thank God." Kotori said.

Sam smirked. "Getting worried?" She asked under her breath.

"Huh? Oh, no. That's just my big brother for you." She replied, too quickly.

"Of course. Kotori never worries about Shido, does she?"

Although Sam would never be able to see it, Kotori just frowned in response.

They all sat around the polished oak table, Yoshino and Sam on one side, Shido and Tohka on the other. Tohka's eyes were still red from crying when Sam started to pass the pot of tea around.

"We'll go back out and look for Yoshinon after this, OK Yoshino?" Sam said.

"Thank you." Yoshino replied.

"Yoshinon?" Tohka asked.

"The puppet." Shido explained.

"Oh, OK." Tohka looked over at Yoshino. "What happened?"

Yoshino was slightly surprised that Tohka was adressing her so normally after what they'd just been through. "I lost her the other day when I fought the AST."

"AST?" Tohka asked, but then quickly answered her own question. "Oh, them."

"We were looking for her before we came back here to get something to eat." Shido added.

"Speaking of which." Sam interrupted. "Apparently Kotori knows where she is."

"Kotori? Your sister?" Tohka looked at Shido quizzically .

"Yes, she's in charge of Ratatoskr." He said. _"Or something."_ Shido still wasn't entirely sure of his sister's relationship with it, but he doubted that she'd even fully explained it in the first place.

He turned to look at Sam. "Where is she?"

"You're not going to like it." Kotori said. Shido was shocked and looked around him, looking for her, but then remembered the earpiece. "Your friend Origami has her."

"Oh boy..."


	13. Power, but at what cost?

So, I've been away for a little while, haven't I? Well, sorry 'bout that, my personal life decided to be a bitch. So, here you are, the latest instalment, and oh boy, was this a trip for me as much as it will be for you. Anyway, as I'm writing this I completely forgot what I wanted to say, so I guess I'll just let you get on with the story.

-Thanks for reading, Ryan "Maltesers123" McGowan.

-Chapter 13

"Remind me again: How am I playing this?" Shido asked as he looked up at the tall apartment block. He was here to see Origami Tobiichi, who took Yoshinon from the scene of the fight the other day. Fortunately, the rain had finally cleared up, but the city was still overcast with forlorn shadows and dreary clouds.

"Just play it cool, and leave the rest to us!" Kotori chirped.

"Oh boy, that makes me so much more confident..." He trailed off, very unwilling to ring the front door's bell.

"Come on Shido, don't you want to see your girlfriend?" She taunted.

He groaned and cast his mind back to when they first _properly_ met. It was during his training, and after a less-than-superb run-in with his homeroom teacher, he was tasked with inviting Origami out. He quickly found that she was very…

Weird.

Pretty, sure. But still weird.

Sighing, he pushed the button for Origami's apartment and steeled himself, a muffled ringing could be heard as he did so.

"Hello?" Asked a disembodied voice that Shido instantly recognized as hers.

"It's me, Shi-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence when the door to the apartment block unlocked and swung open.

He groaned again, and made his way through the door, along the corridor and up the stairs, Kotori talking the whole time. As he approached Origami's apartment, however, her babbling started to crackle and eventually stopped entirely. The last thing he could hear was a very frustrated little sister shouting.

"Damn it Origami!" She shouted.

"Kotori?" Shido asked, worried. He tapped at the earpiece, willing it to spark back to life, but to no avail.

" _Well, no turning back now..."_ He thought as he knocked on the heavy door that led to her flat.

 **Tap. Tap. Ta-**

The door was flung open with a surprising amount of force, and Shido recoiled backwards. Standing there, dressed in a blue dress and a white apron, was Origami Tobiichi herself.

Shido nervously raised his hand in greeting. "Hi Tobiichi." He stuttered, but she didn't reply. Instead, she poked her head out of the door and looked both ways down the hall, checking to see if anyone was watching. Once she was satisfied that no-one was, she pulled him inside by the collar of his shirt.

"Ummm, Tobiichi?" He asked as he was forced rather uncomfortably into her lounge.

She still didn't answer him though as she quietly locked the door, checking once more in case someone was following them. He watched as she moved away from the door and dashed into the kitchen, moving with surprising speed and agility.

" _I guess that's to be expected from the AST..."_ He looked around him and decided to go along with whatever Tobiichi was doing, so he knelt down by the small wooden table and took his bag off, leaving it on the floor a little ways from him. The carpet was soft beneath him, and the table looked like it was made of some pretty pricey mahogany. A large TV was also suspended on the wall above him, causing him to pause. "Where do you get the money to buy all of this stuff?" He asked, ensuring that his voice was loud enough to be heard in the kitchen.

"Classified." Came Origami's reply, simple and deadpan.

"Oh, I see." Shido wondered why she kept up the secrecy of her work. Shido already knew what she did, and she knew that he knew too.

* * *

Sam was back in Shido's kitchen making another pot of tea. Over on the couch, Tohka and Yoshino sat talking, mostly discussing what Shido had just told them about Ratatoskr, but also the nature of Yoshino's position.

"What's up with that puppet then?" Tohka asked bluntly, but not impolitely.

"She's my friend, and my hero." Yoshino softly replied.

"Your hero?"

"Yes. She's everything that I'm not; brave, strong, confident..." She spared Tohka the full explanation, figuring that there was no point. While she seemed calm for now, Yoshino was still acutely afraid of her outbursts.

"Huh." Tohka thought for a minute. "You totally beat those flying guys the other day though!" She smiled a threw a punch into the air. "You and that big guy went like all 'POW' and stuff!" Her grin grew wider and she shut her eyes as she threw another punch into the space between them. Sam giggled at Tohka's innocence. She was sure that she acted even less mature than Yoshino at times.

Yoshino smiled and blushed. "Thanks, but it was mostly Yoshinon."

"The bunny?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, cool!" Tohka clapped her hands together. "That reminds me: What's your power?"

Yoshino frowned and tilted her head. "My 'power'?"

"Yeah, yeah! Watch!" She held her arm out and opened her palm so that it faced the ceiling. She concentrated on the space just above it, willing her energy to converge there, but she couldn't bring it forward. "Huh, that's weird." She made a face and tried again, but still nothing happened. She turned to Sam, almost fearfully. "Sam! I can't summon my power!"

She looked up from the pot. Tohka sounded worried. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"I can't..." She whined and tried again, focusing on the point above her hand, but again, nothing happened.

" _Of course, Shido never explained what sealing a spirit actually entailed."_ Sam watched with pity as she tried again and again to spark her power, but eventually, she managed to create a ball of pulsing pink energy that crackled with purple lightning.

"Ahah! I did it! Look Yoshino!" She held out the ball for her to see.

"Woah!" Yoshino said, amazed. She was hypnotised by the energy as waves of it pulsed and cascaded over other waves, all suspended in a neat sphere.

Tohka closed her fingers over it and it vanished, leaving a slight warm spot in the air as its only trace. "So, what can you do?"

She furrowed her brow and concentrated, and the tip of Tohka's finger started to freeze. "That." She said plainly.

She looked at her now-frozen finger in awe. "That's cool."

Sam snorted.

Yoshino smiled at Tohka's remark, no-one had ever complimented her on her abilities before, after all.

* * *

Origami entered the lounge still looking like a maid, carrying a clay tea pot which gave off a small amount of steam and two clay cups. She knelt down and poured Shido a cup of the stuff, before putting the pot down onto the table beside them.

"Here." She said as she offered the cup.

"Thanks..." Shido said, straining slightly. He looked down at it, and was confronted by a worrying purple liquid. "Uh, Tobiichi?"

"Just drink it." She pushed.

"But-"

"Drink it."

"Tobii-"

Origami just gestured for him to drink it.

Shido let out a long breath, and downed the liquid. It tasted so foul it was as if it physically hurt him, and he threw his head back in pain and clutched his hands to his neck, dropping the cup. Origami took the opportunity and pounced, pushing him to the ground and locking him there.

"Tobiichi?" Shido asked, startled at her strength.

However, she didn't reply at first. Rather, she pressed her body against his, caressing it as sexually as she could, but it just came off as kinda awkward.

"Is this doing anything for you?" She asked, doing her best to sound arousing despite the complete lack of emotion that always seemed to layer her voice.

"Not really." Shido said, almost choking **.**

She frowned and tried again, pushing herself closer. Again, still kinda awkward.

At last realizing her failed attempts and noticing how uncomfortable Shido was, Origami lifted away from him.

"I'll get off you, as long as you promise me one thing." She said.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Shido was very worried. With a girl like Origami, 'one thing' could be anything.

"I hear you call everyone else by their first names, but you always address me with 'Tobiichi'. My name is 'Origami', I want you to call me that from now on." She instructed, a little less harsh than her usual tone.

"Is that all?" Shido asked, surprised by her simple request and not-to-mention relieved.

"Yes." She nodded.

"OK then, To-"

Origami looked him dead in the eye.

"...Origami. I can do that." He finally released his guard when she leapt off of him high into the air and landed gracefully back on the floor.

"I'm getting in the shower, you can come if you want." She said, somehow managing to show no emotion whatsoever.

"No, I'm good. I'll wait here." He said, grinning edgily.

She turned wordlessly away and left Shido still lying on the floor as she left the room.

" _Kind of a weird time for that..."_ He thought as he watched her leave. "Oh right, the puppet!" Mentally slapping his forehead, he stood up and used Origami's sudden absence to search for Yoshinon, opening drawers and cupboards and moving various pieces furniture in an effort to find her.

Eventually, Shido's search took him to her bedroom, but he wasn't too happy about it. "Oh brother." He said as he turned the doorknob. "Let's just get this over-and-done-with." He pushed his way into the room and flicked the light. It was clean and tidy, just as you'd expect from a trained soldier, but it was also filled with various things that he had no idea what they were, creeped him out or both.

"Oh yeah!" Read a certain pillow case, and as Shido flipped it over, he was met with a "Come on!"

"Agh! These not-so-subtle pillow messages are freaking me out!" he said as he ran his hands through his hair. Looking up one more time, he at last found what he was looking for:

Yoshinon, sitting on a shelf above Origami's bed, looking rather sorry for itself.

* * *

The three of them decided to go back down to the city centre and let Yoshino explore the place for herself, rather than have what it was like be told to her. She was dashing down some stairs outside of the shrine where she first met Shido with Tohka and Sam in a lazy pursuit when Tohka turned to Sam.

"She's like a little kid." She said.

"Yeah." She nodded, watching as Yoshino continued to run around the big open space. "But then, I could say the same about you sometimes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She complained, but Sam just laughed in response. She puffed her cheeks out and turned her back, an angry "Hmph" shortly following.

She slapped Tohka's shoulder. "Come on, let's catch up."

"Yeah, OK." She responded, still sulking.

They caught up with Yoshino and headed into the city once more, the clouds having cleared up significantly and the sun starting to peek through, casting a brilliant light over the towering metal-and-glass fingers of the city. Sam started to zone out slightly as the other two were talking about trains. It seemed to her as if all spirits were fascinated by trains.

"Sam?" Yoshino asked.

Sam snapped out of her daydream. "What is it, Yoshino?" She replied.

"Where would you like to go? You've been following Tohka and I this entire time; I felt bad."

Sam looked up in thought. "I'd like to g-"

"Warning. There are precursory signs of an impending spacial quake. Please seek the nearest shelter immediately. This is not a drill." The spacial quake alarm started blaring loudly, and it completely cut Sam off.

"A shelter." She finished. "That's where I'd like to go."

Yoshino looked around her and cowered in fear, covering her ears with her hands. "What's going on?" She cried.

"I'll explain later." Tohka cooed. "But I need you to get up and follow me, please."

"Come on!" Sam shouted, already searching for a shelter. Stupidly, she had left her beacon and earpiece at Shido's house, so there was no hope of the Fraxinus coming to their aid.

She went over to do her best to comfort Yoshino and get her moving, but then she found herself being able to pick out a faint humming noise.

"No, not already..."

* * *

Origami stepped back into the lounge, a cream towel wrapped around her and her normally straight hair falling in irregular curls down her face.

"Oh Origami, you're-Agh!" Shido exclaimed as he turned around to face her.

She knelt down silently beside him, at first a respectable distance away, but she quickly shuffled closer. He rapidly backed away, pressing his back against the glass doors that led to a small balcony. Origami shuffled close again, now only kneeling a foot or two away from him. "Is something the matter?" She asked.

"Seriously, how can you ask me that?" He replied under his breath.

"Look, there's something I want to ask you." Origami looked at Shido, but for once, was unable to meet his gaze. "During one of my missions, I was sure you'd been..."

Her mind was filled with the images of her pulling the trigger; of lining up her rifle; of killing Shido.

" _So_ now _she can tell me about her work?"_ He thought.

"Look," he started, "have you ever even talked to a spirit?"

"What are you trying to say?" She asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"I'm saying that I've talked to spirits, and not just Tohka either. I've talked to Yoshino. She's the spirit called a 'Hermit'." He added that last part for her sake, figuring that the name 'Yoshino' meant nothing to her.

"You shouldn't do that! It's dangerous!" Her warning was stuck somewhere between a reprimand and a plea, a nice change as opposed to her regular harshness.

"It's really not." Shido said softly. "You should give it a try. You might be surprised." He sighed and looked behind him, casting his eyes over the city, collecting his thoughts. "Look, I'm sure there are a ton of 'bad spirits' out there. But they're not all bad."

He turned back to Origami and stared her in the eyes. "You asked something of me, now I'm gonna demand something of you. Stop hurting good people. Promise me that."

She made a face and clenched her teeth. "Shido, I want to believe you, but I can't. Spirits killed my parents, and I can't just forgive them because of what one person says, even if that 'one person' is you."

He dropped his stare and said sullenly, "OK. But, if Yoshino is sealed, and her spirit powers vanish, then you'll stop fighting, won't you? That would be the right thing to do. I know you're a good person, Origami, so please do the right thing, for me."

"It's not about right or wrong, it's about following my orders." She said this with an incredible finality that immediately ended the conversation.

After a few moments of awkward silence, she spoke up once more, "There's something else."

Shido looked up. "What is it?" He asked.

"That girl, she's not what you think she is." She stated with hard seriousness, not entirely alien to her, but it still sent a shiver down his spine.

"Who? Sam?"

Origami simply nodded.

"What do you mean?" He pressed.

"She's dangerous. And-"

A small grey smartphone buzzed from across the room, threatening to fall off of the shelf where it lay.

"We're being deployed." Origami said as she stood up. "Stay here, you'll be safe."

"Wait, Origami!" He called out as she ran into a back room.

"Please, stay away from her." She instructed as she looked down at him with something resembling pity. That was also the last thing she said before she disappeared into the room and seemingly from the building entirely.

"Origami! ORIGAMI!" Shido bolted to his feet and was about to go after her, but deemed that he needed to get to the scene first. He tried the front door, but to his horror, it was still locked.

"Shido?"

Kotori's voice.

"Oh thank God! Kotori, I need you to get me out of here!" He shouted, relieved that the earpiece was working again.

"What happened?" She replied.

"There's no time for that, I need you to retrieve me, now!"

"OK, OK. Calm down. We're locking on to your beacon now."

* * *

Before any of them knew it, they were being confronted by a squad of AST units, weapons loaded.

"Civilian, you are interrupting military operations. We are authorised to use deadly force if necessary. Please step out of the way to avoid this." One of them said.

Sam was standing protectively over Tohka and the still-panicking Yoshino, doing her best to stay brave. Neither of the spirits were in a position to fight, so it came down to her as usual to get everyone out of whatever mess they were in, but she struggled to come up with a plan.

" _No suit, two useless spirits, no support from the Fraxinus, a full squad of AST units..."_ Sam wasn't trying to be harsh, but that was the cold truth.

She grit her teeth and grinned. "Let's see just how willing you are, shall we?" In truth, Sam was in a horrific state. Her breathing was ragged and her hands were shaking, she was sure she would die. But if she could just protect her friends, give them enough time to step up to the plate for themselves, then it would be worth it.

"Suit yourself." The unit said as she pulled out a large handgun and cocked it.

Sam found herself looking down the barrel of the gun, a position she hadn't ever let herself get into before, and she was terrified. She closed her eyes and thrust a hand out, as if that would stop the bullet.

The gun fired.

It didn't.

The bullet continued along its path, smashing through Sam's hand as if it weren't there, cleaving a hole through bone and flesh and continued towards her shoulder. It smashed through that too, almost removing it from her torso. The bullet finally rested as it collided with the ground.

She was still standing, barely.

"That will not be enough to kill you." The unit said. "Consider that as a warning shot. Now, move before I open fire again."

Sam looked at the back of her hand, still suspended in mid-air, despite the wound to her shoulder. She couldn't see that one, she could only feel it, but it hurt.

She gasped for breath. "You think… that's all… I've got?" Sam challenged as loudly as she could and stretched her arms out to cover the two spirits, who were watching her, stunned with awe. "I'll waste… every damn… bullet… that you have!"

The unit stared at Sam, stared at her resolve and her courage. "You would have made a good soldier." She sighed. She turned away and put a finger to a small device in her ear. "All squads, open fire."

The sky lit up with the flare of guns. Dozens of barrels spitting hot metal at Sam's comparatively frail body, as all she could do was hope that the rounds didn't hit Tohka or Yoshino, and that Shido would come to save them.

Her body shuddered as a bullet tore through her leg.

Her body shook as another tore through her arm.

But she stayed upright.

One sliced her ear off; another took her left hand.

One punched into her stomach; another into her chest.

But she stayed upright.

Her blood pooled around her as her body was torn apart.

The ground was lined with holes from shots that missed.

But

She

Stayed…

Her legs started to buckle and her arms fell to her side; Her eyes started to fall and her defiant grin started to falter. Her vision became blurred; Her hearing became muffled; Her feeling became numbed.

" _No. This can't be all I have."_

But it was, and her body began to fall.

Suddenly, she felt herself be thrown upwards, away from the scene. She looked down again and saw the three of them. Tohka and Yoshino still ducking behind Sam's broken body, crumpled and beginning to fall into a pool of her own blood. Time was almost still, but it hadn't stopped entirely.

Then, one bullet in particular grabbed her attention, as if her instincts had pulled her to it. Her eyes were fixed on it, and she watched as it span through the air and under her flailing arm. She watched as it ripped through her jacket and continued to her target.

And then she saw its target.

Yoshino.

"Yoshino!" She shouted, a hand outstretched in desperation, but she was too high up to help.

"YOSHINO!"

* * *

 _Everything went black once again. Sam looked down, her body no longer full of holes and broken bones._

" _Do you desire the power to save your friend?"_

 _She looked around at the void in a panic, unsure of where the menacing voice had come from._

" _Do you desire the power to save yourself?"_

 _Again she searched, but came up empty-handed against the choking darkness._

" _Do you desire the power to fulfil your destiny?"_

" _Who are you?" She managed to ask._

" _I am part of you, and you are part of me."_

" _Where am I?"_

" _You are inside our subconscious. I will ask one more time: Do you desire the power to fulfil your destiny?"_

" _Yes! Please! Help me save Yoshino!"_

" _I cannot help you myself, I can only allow you to help yourself."_

" _Please! Anything! I'll do anything!" Sam looked around whilst expecting the voice to return, but it did not. Instead, she noticed that the same ball of light had returned, along with all of the warmth and hope it gave off._

" _That is our power. I have simply freed it from the boundaries that existed around it. Go to it, let it take you, and you will fulfil your destiny."_

 _Sam wasn't exactly sure what the voice meant, but if it meant saving Yoshino, then she wasn't going to hesitate for even a second. She pushed toward it, feeling the light and warmth that radiated from it. It felt nostalgic, homely even, as if it had always been there._

 _She also noticed that it glowed slightly blue this time, and the ball was much larger than she was, or at least, larger than however big she appeared in the featureless void that stretched around her. She stopped at the ball's edge, an event horizon of swirling energy coursing around her, above her and below her. She reached out, her hand disappearing as it was swallowed by the mass of energy. Blue sparks leapt up her arm as she pushed further into it, and finally, her vision faded to black as she was engulfed._

* * *

She stopped the bullet in mid-air, her arm reaching out for it as it spun towards Yoshino's forehead.

 **Splosh**

The bullet dropped into the pool of blood that lay around her, creating a string of ripples that expanded outwards to the pools edge.

Inside the pupil of Sam's right eye, a small green light shone. This light promised power, courage, strength. It promised so many things, both good and evil. However, the light in her left eye hadn't formed, despite its attempts to spark.

Sam looked at her body, and saw that it was perfectly intact, put together by some unknown magic, but she was grateful all the same.

She whistled, "Phew, that was a close one, eh Yoshino?" She turned back around and looked Yoshino in the eye for the first time since gaining her new powers. She was sitting in a pool of Sam's blood, and it had soaked her bright green coat crimson. Her eyes were wide with horror, and a singular tear formed in her eye.

Sam watched the tear as it trailed down Yoshino's cheek and down to her chin. It dangled there for a moment, but then it fell. She watched as the tear fell, glistening with bittersweetness. She watched as it splashed into the pool of blood, and just like how a single drip of water can shatter a tranquil lake, Yoshino's single tear shattered Sam's tranquil mind.

The second light sparked and caught.

Sam turned back towards the hovering AST, their guns no longer firing, and her body started to quake.

"You..."

She started to suck air in through her teeth with anger.

"You..."

Her hands clenched and unclenched rapidly.

"You..."

Her head shot upwards and her eyes narrowed.

"YOU BASTARDS!" She roared and a huge plume of blue energy erupted around her in response. An aura not too dissimilar from the other Spirit's, but far more intensive.

"YOU BASTARDS!" She repeated, and the ground started to crack and shake as more energy was released.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Her aura doubled in size.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL FOR HURTING ME!"

Her aura doubled again.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL FOR HURTING YOSHINO!"

Her aura tripled in size.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL, FOR DARING TO STAND BETWEEN ME AND SHIDO!"

Her aura exploded outwards, easily ten times larger than its last increase. It completely engulfed her, Tohka and Yoshino and threatened to burn some of the closer AST units, who were still at least 30 metres away.

She shot forwards, travelling fast enough to break the sound barrier and slammed into the nearest AST unit, letting go of her inner struggle and letting pure, blind rage take over. The poor girl was too stunned to resist, and she could only watch as Sam closed her fingers around her windpipe.

 **SNAP**

Sam had broken the girl's neck, and she dropped lifelessly to the ground. She turned her gaze to the next closest and appeared behind her in an instant. The rest of the squad was still too shocked to act, and they only looked-on as Sam ripped the girl in two, covering her with blood.

"Holy shit. Everyone get the fuck back!" One of them ordered, and finally the others started to stir.

"You think you can run?" Sam laughed maniacally, a horrible sound that filled the air with even more dread and violence. "YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN FROM A GOD?" She roared as she instantly closed the gap between a group of three of them.

"I'M GOING TO HAVE SOME FUN WITH YOU THREE!" Sam manipulated her aura and projected it out towards the small group, the energy clashing with their territories. "How funny, you think your little machines will save you from a God."

The territories were easily overcome, however, and the group's skin and flesh melted off of their bones, becoming a collective mass of meat, puddled on the tarmac.

Then she saw who she was really looking for: Origami Tobiichi, looking as if she was going to throw up at the sight.

"What's wrong Origami? Weren't you going to protect Shido from me? Weren't you going to kill me? Weren't you going to avenge your dear little parents?"

"How-How do you know?" Origami asked, her speech punctured with trembling fear.

"Oh Origami... Don't you see? I am a GOD. I know EVERYTHING." Sam twirled around, gesturing to what she had created. The ground was cracked and broken, corpses littered the street, buildings lay in ruins. "And now, I'm going to kill you."

She didn't dash to Origami like she did the others, instead, she floated over to her, purposefully taking her time, rooting her to the spot with fear.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."

She grabbed onto Origami's head and tightened her grip, who screamed out in pain as her skull became painfully close to being crushed, when…

Sam's aura vanished. her grip loosened when she teetered away from Origami, and fell to the floor.


	14. Recovery

So, I've been away for a little while, sorry 'bout that, real life decided to rear it's ugly head. And what's worse? I'm not even that happy about this chapter. Anyway, I should be back to my normal upload schedule from now on: Chapter every 5 days or so, so you won't be getting huge dry patches again.

-Ryan "Maltesers123" McGowan

-Chapter 14

 **Beep Beep Beep Beep**

The green line on the monitor bounced up and down in time with Sam's resting heart, which was sat at a comfortable 45bpm.

 **Beep Beep Beep Beep**

Apart from the whirring and beeping of the machines, the only sound that permeated the otherwise silent sickbay was Sam's soft, gentle breathing. Her face was rid of any and all anger, and she looked at peace for the first time in a long time, almost completely still.

 **Beep Beep Beep Beep**

Then, she started to stir. Slowly and sluggishly at first, but she eventually managed to wake up.

"Ah...what...happened?" She asked to no-one in particular as she sat up, resting her back on the white headboard and bringing one hand to her head. The bright light of the room was still blinding to her, so she squinted her eyes as she waited for them to adjust. Struggling to remember what got her here, she looked down at her body, and at last started to remember.

" _Oh yeah, I got shot at. A lot."_ She thought, but then started to doubt that memory too. _"Wait, but then, where's the damage? I should have a scar or something at least… And wasn't my hand cut off?"_ She brought her other hand out from under the blanket and stared at it. She turned it over, but there was no sign of it ever being dismembered, or anything for that matter. It was completely intact.

" _Weird, there must be something I'm missing..."_ She tossed the blanket onto the floor and inspected her naked body.

Nothing. Not a scratch. Not a bruise.

" _But, I could have sworn..."_ Even her own thoughts stopped lining up, so she stood up and began to pace, her bare feet slapping at the polished floor.

After a minute of pacing, another memory came to her. She slapped her forehead in response. "That light! That power!" Sam mentally congratulated herself, but she still sensed that something was missing. _"What happened after that?"_ She tried to recall what happened next, but after a solid ten minutes of thinking, nothing came.

 **Tap tap**

Someone knocked on the door to the medical complex.

"Who is it?" Sam asked, instinctively looking for something to cover herself with.

* * *

Kotori stood anxiously on the other side of the door. The others were with her, looking equally worried. Shido, Tohka and the newly-sealed Yoshino were pressed up against the wall on one side of the door, with Kannazuke and Reine huddled against the other.

"It's Kotori." She said.

"One second!" Sam replied.

" _She sounds...fine. Could be a good sign."_ She told herself.

A moment later, she found herself looking at Sam as she stood in the gap, a thin blanket covering her for modesty. Kotori stepped quickly forward into the room. She didn't want Sam to know that she wasn't alone.

"Just you?" Sam asked as if she could hear Kotori's thoughts.

However, she was prepared to answer that question, so despite the slight jitters in her arms and legs, she replied coolly. "No, it's just me. Everyone else is busy."

"Oh. I see."

Kotori sat down on one of the many beds and gestured for Sam to sit with her. She did.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two of them, where the only thing that filled the space was the light that spilled in through the window, basking them in a warm yellow glow. Beyond that, the blue sky stretched all around them, with fluffy white clouds dotting the scene way off in the distance and vapour trails from more conventional aircraft criss-crossing each other, making the sky look like a giant's game of tic-tac-toe.

"So," Sam started, "what about Yoshino? The last thing I remember was an incredible power, and when I looked back… That's where the memory ends." She jumped slightly in realization. "Do you even know what happened?"

Kotori did know, of course, but she pretended like she didn't. "No. Our sensors went down after the spacial quake alarm went off, we were blind for the whole thing."

"In that case..." Sam told her everything she could remember. The alarm going off and the AST attacking them. How she put herself between the units and the spirits, and how they opened fire on her. She spoke about the black space and the voice, and the power that it promised her, and the power that it delivered. She finished saying, "I said something like, 'That was a close one Yoshino', but I can't remember anything after that."

" _So she_ doesn't _remember after all."_ Kotori sighed inwardly. _"Thank God. This makes this a little easier."_

She looked up, but found that she couldn't quite look Sam in the eye. "Actually, now that I think about it, Shido and the others did tell me a little bit of what happened."

Sam perked up. "Really? What was it?"

"You put some kind of forcefield down, like a shield. It was big enough to cover the three of you, and no matter how hard they tried, the AST couldn't break through. You bought us enough time to get Shido to Yoshino, seal her, and get you all out of there."

"Really?"

"Yeah. That's it." Kotori pleaded to whatever God was listening that Sam wouldn't press further, because her alibi was bad enough as it is.

She looked down, disappointed. "Oh, that's really all I did."

Another horrible silence filled the air, almost choking the two of them. Sam was lost in her own thoughts of self-doubt and self-worth. It seemed as if she failed on every single mission. Either by failing to be prepared, failing to protect those who needed it or failing to appear at all.

Kotori felt a slight tinge of guilt at seeing her distressed like this, but she quickly dismissed the thought. Sam _could_ be replaced, after all.

 _With almost no consequences._

"Well, I should be off." She said simply, effectively ending the conversation. Sam knew not to object, so she just silently nodded as she left the room, leaving Sam alone on the bed.

* * *

"She doesn't know." Kotori said once she was safely out of earshot, walking down the hall with the rest in tow. "And she _never_ can _. OK_?"

"OK..." Said Yoshino, who replied first. Her small voice didn't carry very far and it barely even reached her, but she sounded incredibly beaten-up and distraught over the incident, and Shido was worried that she was blaming herself.

"What do we do?" Tohka asked.

"We'll keep her isolated and working. We'll keep contact to a minimum. Got it?" Kotori replied, harsher than was probably necessary.

Tohka was about to interject, but she stopped herself. _"_ _That couldn't have been her. I won't believe it."_ She thought.

"Shido? You got that?"

However, Shido didn't respond to his sister's orders. Instead, he kept his mouth firmly shut and his eyes dead ahead.

He hated the tone of his sister's voice. It was as if she didn't care in the slightest, and he wasn't going to stand for it. He felt a flicker not unlike the one he felt during his first meeting with Tohka. Something was going on here, and he was going to find out.

He could tell him and his sister were about to butt heads, but he wondered who's side the spirits would take. Would they be his allies? Or his enemies? Would _they_ even care, they had every right not to after all. After a display like that, he was surprised that Yoshino was even sane right now.

He kept quiet, but he wasn't looking forward to the future.

* * *

The next few weeks passed without much incident. Sam kept working on the new suit, no new spirits had arrived and the current spirits were busy adjusting to their new lives. The special housing unit for spirits was finally finished, and so Tohka moved into it with Yoshino, leaving Shido's house spirit-free once more.

"What's going on here, Kotori?" Shido demanded. He finally worked up the courage to confront his little sister, and between the half-truths and hidden meanings in his sisters words over the last few days, he had had enough. "Why won't you let me see Sam?"

She huffed and turned the chair towards him. Apart from the two of them, the Fraxinus' bridge was empty, the crew having been temporarily dismissed due to the lack of spirit anomalies. The ship itself still hung lazily in the sky above Tenguu. "You know why."

"Do I? Do I really?" He had to fight himself to stop his hand from shaking. He was sick of his sister's attitude towards the whole situation.

Kotori was bored. She saw this coming too. "You can't see her, because we still need to be sure about this power. You could be in danger by talking to her."

"But _nothing_ has happened since that day, and I don't even think that _was_ her." He replied, his voice becoming slightly raised. He thought back to when Kotori showed him the footage.

* * *

" _What the...hell?" Shido managed to force out after the video ended. After watching Sam massacre arguably innocent people._

" _When she wakes up, I'll check on her to see if she remembers what happens. It doesn't matter if she does or doesn't, we're to keep contact to a minimum." Kotori said._

 _He managed to tear his eyes away from a still-image of her, collapsed in a pool of blood and flesh. "And what about Tohka or Yoshino?"_

" _I've already told Tohka. Yoshino is...still recovering."_

"Of course," _he thought,_ "She's probably not coping too well."

 _Shido stood looking at the image, when something hit him. "Kotori, play the video from the start again."_

" _Why? Is there something I missed?" Kotori asked, slightly shaken._ "Surely he didn't notice it. Surely not."

" _I don't know. Maybe."_

 _The video rewinded to the start, and then played again. The large monitor showed Sam with the other two cowering behind her. It showed her body be torn apart by cold metal, and then a blinding light. After the light had subsided, her body was back to normal. But then, by nothing more than sheer coincidence, Sam looked directly at the camera._

" _Pause it!"_

 _Kotori paused the video. If she hesitated now, it would only make Shido more suspicious._

 _He looked closely, searching Sam's face, and that's when he saw it._

* * *

"Tell me how Sam's a spirit!" He shouted.

"I don't know what you're talking about, _Shido."_ Kotori spat.

"Oh, I think you _do._ " He narrowed his eyes. _"_ _I'm still your big brother, sis."_

They stared at each other, an invisible battle being fought between their glares.

" _If I tell him, will he tell her?"_ She looked away.

Shido watched as his sister turned away, and he felt slightly bad for being so accusatory towards his own little sister. He lowered his tone, "Koto-"

"Follow me."


	15. Dropped secrets, Part Two

Told you. ;P

-Chapter 15

"Where are we?" Shido asked, shuddering slightly from the cold. He was in the lower levels of the ship, but that was about as much as he could tell. The 'decor' here was even more sparse than it was in the main levels, with clean white metal walls and bright strip lights being subverted by rusty pipes and dim bulbs, and there was a slight fear in the back of his mind that a rat would suddenly dash out from some unseen hole and attack him.

It was pretty dreary, to say the least.

"The deepest bowels of the ship. This is where you'll find your answers." Replied his escort, which was none-other than his little sister Kotori. Although, she didn't sound like herself at all. In fact, between the poor lighting and apprehensive tone, it could've been anyone a few paces before him.

They kept walking in silence for a few minutes more, aside from the echoing _clang_ each of their footfalls made. But as the hallway finally started to warm up, which Shido was grateful for, Kotori stopped at a thick iron door.

"Is this it?"

"Yes."

Shido looked closer at the door, it looked like something you'd find on an old submarine. All cast iron and rusting bolts, with a large wheel in the middle. Kotori hesitated slightly as he approached it, but she eventually stepped out of the way, and, with a heave, the wheel started to spin.

"Why...is this place...like this?" Shido grunted between spins.

"Barely anyone ever comes down here, so there was no point wasting power by installing fancy tech." She sighed. "The heat you're feeling is actually coming straight from the transformer," she pointed into the darkness, away from the direction they came, "just down there."

"OK… _Hngh_ _!_ " With one last effort, the door swung open, leading into a similarly poorly-lit room beyond. Shido rested his hands on his knees and bent over slightly, fighting for his breath back.

"And also, this room requires a _lot_ of power." She said whilst stepping past him and into the ominous black. The only lighting seemed to be an ambient green, given off by rows of cylinders that stretched deep into it. Shido could only see two rows from where he was stood, still outside the door, but he got a horrible feeling that there were many more outside his field of vision, and even more shrouded in the darkness where the subtle light couldn't compete with the enclosing blackness.

He felt a single bead of sweat trickle down his right arm, and he stepped inside.

He was right.

To his left he counted at least three more rows, and probably five more rows to his right. He still couldn't quite see how many cylinders were in each row, considering that the fourth cylinder in the row ahead of him was partially concealed by shadow, and the possible fifth one was gone completely.

"Kotori?" Shido asked, nervously stepping forwards into the room and away from the comparatively brilliant light of the hallway.

"Gimme a sec." She replied from somewhere in the darkness.

Curiosity finally got the better of Shido and he tentatively walked closer to the nearest of the strange tubes, the light growing brighter as he closed the gap. He placed one hand on the thick perspex and was surprised at how warm it was. As he moved his face a little closer, he noticed that the cylinder was full of liquid, and that the green light was coming from somewhere inside it, giving the impression that the water was glowing. He also noticed a figure floating in it; a dark silhouette that seemed to have no features. Just a dark blob in some green water.

Shido pressed his face against the perspex in an attempt to make out the figure.

The lights suddenly flickered on and the whole room was showered in light.

The next few seconds passed by in a blur for Shido. The first thing he could remember happening was that the lights suddenly turned on, and he finally got a good view of what was suspended before him. The second thing he remembered happening was his body throwing itself backwards in fear; a primal instinct to run kicking in and sending him fleeing in the opposite direction. The third thing he remembered was looking back from where he was cowering against the wall, and seeing something. The last thing he remembered was what that thing was.

It was a person, female at that. She was quite tall, with long legs, narrow shoulders and narrow hips. She looked like she was in her late-teens; not quite an adult, but not really a child either. She had thin arms and legs, with little muscle to be found.

Very slowly, Shido panned his eyes upwards. She had a flat stomach which became ever so slightly thinner at her waist. She had a moderately large chest and an average sized neck that seemed to compliment her narrow shoulders somewhat.

He continued looking upwards. She had a soft, pretty face with bright green eyes. Her ears were a good size and so was her nose and mouth. But then, he saw what he most feared.

On top of her head, was a mess of short blue hair, not too unlike his own but much lighter in colour.

Sam's hair.

Shido fainted.

* * *

A dull pain in the back of his head and a sharp pain in his eyes, that's what he felt first.

"Finally awake?"

Shido was fairly sure he knew who's voice that was, but he couldn't put a finger on it right now. His head was spinning far too much for something so complicated.

"Come on you idiot, get up!" The voice shouted.

He felt a powerful hit go into his right side, and he threw himself up.

"What!?" He yelled, his head slowly starting to return to normal. His eyes still hurt though.

"I really need you _not_ to do that from now on."

He cracked one eye open at the sound of the now-familiar voice, the pain subsiding at long last. "Do what?" He asked groggily.

"Faint." Came a deadpan reply. "You wanted answers right? So get up!"

He forced his other eye open, and a set of red twintails came into focus.

"Oh good, he's up." Kotori made a face and crossed her arms disapprovingly. "We didn't train you for over a week to go fainting at the slightest thing."

"I fainted?"

"Yeah, pretty spectacularly too."

"How?"

Kotori didn't answer, she just stepped neatly aside, and Shido saw it all over again. The figure, the face, the hair.

He almost fainted again.

"Wh-what… What the hell is that!?" He asked, a mixture of fear and morbid curiosity lining his unstable tone.

"That...is Samanya Greenson, experiment C-07."

"E-experiment!?" Shido forced himself up onto his feet. He was still wobbly, but he could stand, just.

"Yep. Experiment."

Shido no longer had any words, and his eyes started wondering by themselves. He unwillingly looked into the others cylinders, and saw the same thing. One after another.

That same figure.

That same face.

That same hair.

"They're all..." He trailed off until his voice was nothing more than a pathetic squeak.

"Her." Kotori finished.

"But...how?" Shido's mind was playing catch-up right now; working overtime in a desperate attempt to process the trip-inducing sight before him.

"Oh boy, this is gonna take a while..." Kotori sighed and shook her head. _"You knew this would happen, Kotori."_

She looked up at her bewildered brother and found herself smiling.

Yeah, yeah she did.


	16. Dropped secrets, Part Three

After Shido had finally calmed down, well, as much as he could given the current scenario, that is, Kotori started to explain.

"Experiment C-07, combat unit. Designation, 'Samanya Greenson'. The successor to its earlier model, the C-06 and the predecessor to the latest prototype, the C-08."

"There were others before her?" Shido asked, his tone still slightly disturbed.

She made a face and her eyes wandered up to the cold metal ceiling above. She thought about it. "From what I've heard, the A and B series never made it past the first stages. I joined Ratatoskr during the early stages of C-01, and helped to shape the later models."

He gulped anxiously as his sister went on. "It was designed to be the ultimate biological weapon. It's muscle fibres are incredibly dense, allowing it to lift and move and strike well above it's weight, without having a large muscle mass to slow it down."

Shido flinched. _Models. Prototype._ _Biological weapon._ These words sounded ugly to him. She even refrained from referring to Sam as a _her_. To Kotori, Sam was an _it._

"It's bones are reinforced with a Titanium weave," she went on, "allowing it to shrug off normally-finishing blows with ease. Something the C-06 didn't have."

Shido's mind suddenly flashed back to that moment. He could see it all so vividly. Sam's body lying crumpled and broken; her face contorted and pained; her breathing faint and ragged. He shuddered at the foul memory. That was the first time she had gone down. The other time was…

No, he wasn't going there again.

"Yes, after that, we updated it."

"Huh?"

"I could tell by your face that that's what you were just thinking." She said, slightly irritated if anything, as if this was nothing to her. But, it _was_ nothing to her. She had known for nine months now. Ever since that first model was deemed a success, and it was trained through experience to fight, she had been there. "I'm still your sister, remember? I can read your face like an open book."

He frowned. He wasn't sure she still _was_ his sister.

"Anyway, it's also incredibly clever, as you may have noticed, with a strong sense of bravery and heroism. This was all intentional, of course. However, early feeling and personality algorithms caused it to act inhumanly, so as much of a drawback to her main role as it was...we had to purposely program some flaws." She shrugged. "You may have noticed that it's slightly awkward socially whenever it's not in combat."

He nodded. That date with Tohka had outlined that pretty well. She always seemed to hang at the back, always becoming scarce whenever the conversation didn't directly include her.

"Her life was completely made up as well. Written to be untraceable. Enough key events to flesh it out, but in a faraway place where it could never accidentally stumble upon the truth."

"So, Sam's life? It was all made up?" Shido asked, still straining slightly. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take, and he felt as if he was going to crack at any moment.

"Pretty much. Everything except for the fire."

He looked down at his hands, which were planted firmly in his lap. It had suddenly gotten very very cold. "What about her being a spirit?" He asked tentatively, his eyes still firmly downcast.

"I'm glad you asked. Follow me." She said with a devilish smile.

"W-why?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Just do it."

* * *

Tohka stared at the wall with piercing fury, etching a vicious gaze into the very paint that coated it. Yoshino watched as the wall was met with her divine anger, and, if she was being honest, she felt kinda sorry for the wall.

"She's hiding something from us!" Tohka stated dramatically.

"Kotori?"

"Yeah! I can feel it! You feel it too, right?"

"Yeah… I guess I can."

"It's so annoying!"

"Can you feel it, Yoshinon?" Yoshino asked the small puppet in her hand.

"What? The heavy air of dread and foreboding? The ugly stench of lies and mystery? Or perhaps the crushing feeling of guilt, sorrow and madness?" The small puppet replied sarcastically and dripping with sass.

"Not funny, Yoshinon." Yoshino answered plainly.

Tohka, however, didn't pick up on the sarcasm, apparently. "Yes! That's exactly it! All of those things! Although, I'm not entirely sure what some of them were..." She turned around away from the wall, suddenly more thoughtful than angry. She made a face.

"What is it, Tohka?" Yoshinon asked.

"I'm not sure, but I might have just had an idea..."

* * *

"What is this?" Shido asked, curious as to why he was staring at a large open field through a grainy monitor.

"Just watch." Replied his sister, who was also peering at the monitor.

They were in some sort of control room, built into the far wall overlooking the vast expanse below. There was a bank of monitors, switches and displays under the large perspex window, the rows of suspended bodies in their neat rows just beneath, still illuminated by bright strip lights. Somehow, the room they were in still managed to stay dim and ominous, as if the very lights were playing games with him.

The wind started to pick up. It was slow at first, but, before long, it had become terrifyingly fast. More and more clouds were dragged into the spinning vortex, and as it spun faster, the storm tightened until it had become a full-blown tornado. The eye reached down towards the earth, and suddenly, a large purple hemisphere erupted within the rolling fields. It expanded outwards with frightening speed, ripping the ground apart with little effort or resistance. The footage zoomed outwards, and showed the expanding purple bubble swallow up towns, cities, planes, trains, ports and roads. It swallowed up mountains like they were molehills, skyscrapers like they were poorly-constructed shacks, even entire countries. They were turned to nothing but rubble and ash and dust. The single greatest cause of death the world had ever seen, even greater than the black death in Europe in the 1340s, or the horrors of mechanized war in the early Twentieth century. The Eurasian spacial quake, and the one-hundred-and-fifty million lives that went with it.

"Why are you showing me this? We've both seen it before." Shido said.

"Just keep watching."

He huffed, but he did as he was told. The grainy film crackled twice in the span of a few seconds. As the spacial quake slowed and eventually stopped reaching outwards, it crackled again. This time, though, it was incredibly violent, and the screen was filled with nothing but static for at least a minute. At last, the image returned, but the quake was nowhere to be seen. A desert had seemingly replaced it.

"When the quake suddenly stopped, it let off a powerful electromagnetic-pulse that knocked out every other satellite above it. Any satellite made today would have been rendered useless until repairs could be made. This one, however, was made during the Cold War, and was designed to endure possible enemy attacks. This allowed it to capture what happened directly after the event, right at it's centre." She clarified.

"What do you mean?" He asked, but he had a horrible feeling he already knew.

"What happens when a spacial quake goes off, Shido?"

"Well...there's a big explosion, a lot of damage...and a spirit."

"Good. Now, what have you seen already?"

"A big explosion..."

"Mhm?"

"Lots of damage..."

"But what _haven't_ you seen?"

He swallowed hard. "A...spirit."

Kotori grinned triumphantly and directed her view back to the monitor and the grainy film that it showed. Shido reluctantly did the same, his actions caught between growing curiosity and biting fear.

The camera zoomed in again, no longer showing the entirety of the Eurasian continent and instead just showing the newly-scorched wasteland where the quake first started.

His heart skipped a beat. Kotori was right. There, in the middle of a colossally huge crater, stood a figure. It was difficult to make out, and at first he blamed it on the poor quality of the recording, but he soon realised that the figure itself was shadowy and almost without form.

"I-is that…?"

"Yes, the first spirit."

They continued watching it for a short while. They watched as it started to move, but it didn't walk like one could expect, no, instead, it glided a tiny distance above the ground, hovering with ease as it moved about. The camera had zoomed in so far by this point that they could both make out it's actions pretty easily. It picked up a rock, then it dropped it again.

"What you're seeing is this spirit's aura. It's body is somewhere beneath that."

Shido, without taking his eyes off the shadowy figure, asked, "What does this have to do with Sam?"

Kotori sighed. "Like any other creature, that spirit has it's own specific genetic make-up that it could theoretically leave on anything."

He looked up from the monitor.

"Experiment C, current model 07. A combat unit. Designed to be smart, strong and fast. It was also designed," Kotori paused and turned to look her confused brother in the eye, "to channel the first spirit's power, and adopt it as its own."

Shido's eyes widened.

* * *

 **CLANG**

Sam's hammer smashed into a white-hot strip of metal, a piece that would eventually be part of her new visor.

 **CLANG**

The strip was bent again under the force of the blow.

 **CLANG**

" _I wonder how the spirits are doing..."_ Sam thought as she continued to beat the piece into shape. The new suit was almost done, and the only things that needed doing now were the finishing touches, like the painting, the new visor and a bit of light testing. The core systems of it were all functioning normally, early tests had shown, and some piloted tests had proven to Sam and everyone else that this new power source really was phenomenal, allowing a maximum energy output of up to five-point-eight times the first suit's capabilities. This, however, did come with some disadvantages.

 **CLANG**

"There we go! That should do it." Sam picked up the still-hot piece of metal with some large cast iron tweezers and admired it. "Yep, looks good!" She smiled warmly to herself as she leaned over and dipped it into a barrel of cold water that stood just by the forgery table. Kinda medieval, she kept thinking while she used it, but it got the job done, and didn't take up many resources.

The metal cooled with a satisfying _sssss_ and it finally returned to a dull grey after a couple of seconds in the water. She took it out again, checked that it had cooled correctly and that there were no cracks and then put it down on the table.

She yawned and stretched, looking at her arms as she did so. There, just peaking out from under the sleeved of her dark overalls, was the tiniest hint of some actual muscle. "Wow," she said as she brought her arms back down, "I'm finally getting buff!"

She chuckled to herself for a moment, and decided that that was enough for today. It was getting late, and there was still no cause for concern, so she could work at a comfortable pace, and hadn't had to miss what she wanted to do outside of work, yet. Only turning to look back once, she exited the workshop and made her way down to the bridge. _"I wonder if Kotori's still there..."_

* * *

"W-what?"

Kotori crossed her arms impatiently. "You heard me."

"B-but...I don't..." Shido trailed off, speechless, his mind filling in the blanks. He collapsed to the floor, landing awkwardly on his behind. "W-what the hell are you saying!?"

"Sam's not human!" She shrieked, her patience up. "She's a monster created to test the powers of the first spirit!"

He stood shakily up.

"She's just a machine! _It's_ just a machine!"

"SHUT UP!" Shido roared. He was conflicted. Every cell in his body told him that this was wrong. He took a step back, and Sam appeared standing before him, except it wasn't Sam. It couldn't have been. No, it was just an image he'd conjured up.

"Shido? Are you okay?" She asked, softly and full of passion, like a human.

He threw his hands to his head in response. His own mind was toying with him. Every thought seemed to fight the other. Did he believe his own eyes and his sister's explanation, or did he believe the blue-haired girl? The one that seemed oh so human.

"Shido?" The image flickered like a broken hologram, the colour of her cheeks fading as he tried to look away, but just couldn't.

Shido dropped into a low crouch, his head still in his hands. He was faintly aware that his sister was shouting at him to get over it, but it sounded far off. he was in his own little world.

* * *

" _Sam..."_

"Huh?" Sam whirled around, trying to locate Shido's voice. She had just been to the bridge, but Kotori was nowhere to be found, so she had quickly left again. "Shido? Is that you?"

* * *

" _Shi...at yo…?"_

Shido's head shot up and expected to see that cursed image taunting again, but it had gone, blown away in the gentle breeze.

" _Shi...whe...ou?"_

He stood up and looked around him, his break-down on-hold for the moment. "Sam? Is that you?" He asked the air, garnering a concerned look from Kotori.

* * *

" _Sa...at you?"_

Sam spun on her heel, and she would never be sure how, but she would swear later that she could almost _feel_ Shido's presence. She could _feel_ where he was. And where he was...worried her.

But she didn't know why.

"Shido! I'm coming!"

* * *

" _Shido! I'm coming!"_

Desperation, confusion, fear. That's what Shido could hear in that voice. It was also clear, much clearer than the other times.

Then something weird happened. He started to feel something, like a heartbeat, but it wasn't his own.

It was...Sam's. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. He could also feel her presence. He knew exactly where she was, even if he couldn't see her.

* * *

"Sam! Hold on! I'm coming to you!"

He sprung forwards, barging past Kotori as he threw himself down the steps, into the room below and out through the thick iron door, finally stopping in the dismal corridor.

He started to run.

" _Sam! Hold on! I'm coming to you!"_

She skidded to a halt at his inexplicable voice. It was clear this time, too clear to just be her imagination, so she checked her surroundings again, but still couldn't find him.

"Where are you?" She shouted, her voice rising slightly in panic.

" _Just stay there. I know where you are!"_

" _He can see me?"_ Sam whipped around again, but again, couldn't find any trace of Shido.

* * *

Shido leapt round a corner, the walls becoming familiar again. His breathing was shot and sweat lined his forehead and made his shirt cling to his back, put he pushed through it.

* * *

Sam swung round a corner.

" _Why did he sound so distressed?"_ Sam shook her head, a bead of sweat falling to the ground as she sprinted. _"How can I even hear him?"_

Sam jumped through a door, and Shido fell into her arms. He looked up at her, worry and sweat covering his face. She looked down at him, fear and pity covering hers.

"Shido! What happened!?"

Shido opened his mouth to say something, but once again, consciousness failed him, and he collapsed into Sam's strong embrace.

 _Impossibly strong_ , Shido let himself think.


	17. Rising tension

Hello again!

So, about the uploading schedule for each chapter...unfortunately, I'd highly recommend getting used to these longer gaps as I've been striving for quality over quantity recently and we're now so far off the beaten track that I actually have to plan the story, whereas I really didn't need to back in chapter 5.

So yeah, hopefully you should see a slight increase in writing quality, but unfortunately you'll probably see a little less overall.

Also, I may or may not be reworking some of my old chapters soon, using what I've learned over these last few months. Nothing story-changing, just some clean-ups and rewrites.

Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy Date A Live: Samanya's story Chapter 17, Rising tension.

* * *

"Shido? Shido!" Sam shook the collapsed boy, urging him to get up after his sudden fall which draped him across her arms and left his head resting loosely on her shoulders. She quickly worked to make sure he could breath properly, knowing that a sudden collapse was no joke, and that she shouldn't waste any time. "Shido!" She shouted again, and shook with as much ferocity as she deemed safe, but still nothing. Shido was out cold.

Sam fought the urge to panic and gently laid his unconscious body onto the floor, doing her best to make sure he was comfortable, and that he'd be safe for as long as it would take her to get help. Figuring that someone else must be aboard the ship, she shouted as loud as she could. "Kotori! Kannazuke! Anybody! Please help!"

She ducked down again to check his pulse. He was still breathing. Good. "Anyone?" She called out once more. Still no reply; now she was panicking. She jumped up onto her feet and spun around, trying to decide which way to head first, but knowing full-well that the labyrinthine structure of the ship's decks and corridors didn't lend itself to finding anyone else in a hurry. She decided she'd have to carry him with her, so she turned around once more and started to bend down.

Suddenly, a slight copper wire with a barbed tip whipped through the air and slammed into the small of Sam's back, sending her muscles into a frenzied spasm as 100,000 volts sparked down it.

"Ahhh!" Sam yelled as she collapsed to her knees. Her instincts kicked in and she started to desperately scrabble at the wire, her arms just responding enough to flail wildly, but the longer that thing was stuck into her the more control she lost.

Finally, _mercifully_ , a hand brushed the wire, and when she reached again she managed to close a fist around it. She was about to pull, when another barbed tip buried itself in her left shoulder. She screamed again and her arms seized up, falling uselessly to the floor as she rocked forwards, her balance gone.

"Shido..." She managed to gasp, just as another tip stuck into her neck. She was almost sure that one would kill her, or draw a lot of blood at the very least. Now having lost all control of her limbs, she lay there thrashing and struggling for a few moments, pitifully fighting against her own failing body. To make things worse, she could feel her own consciousness starting to falter and the approaching inevitable loomed over her more and more the longer she fought to keep her eyes open.

A figure appeared before her. In her current state it seemed as if the figure was nothing more than a blurry outline, or like a poorly rendered model in a video game. She did notice one thing though.

"Kotori…?" Sam whispered, the breath stripped out from under her.

At last, and without an answer, she blacked out.

* * *

 _A familiar sight, that was Sam's first thought. An empty, featureless void and a small glowing light way off in the distance. Sam knew what that light promised._

" _So, here you are again."_

 _A voice, that was her second thought. Just like before, feminine but overwhelmingly commanding. A set of tones, pitches and dynamics unlike any other and ethereal in nature._

" _It seems so, doesn't it?" Sam asked the empty darkness, slightly jokingly in manner. She figured that she had already been here twice, so why should she be so worried?_

" _Do you know why you are here, blue one?" Her voice echoed throughout the space, making it seem smaller and more claustrophobic than it looked. Sam could almost imagine walls just beyond the shadows._

" _Hmm? Oh! No, I don't...but I assume you're about to tell me?"_

" _You are here," the voice started, appearing not to pick up on Sam's sarcasm, "because I fear we will meet again soon, under dire circumstances."_

 _Sam dropped the attitude._

" _There is a being out there, a being that yearns for my destruction. I fear she will yearn for yours too." The voice sounded sad, as if it genuinely cared for Sam's safety, which she found doubtful at first._

" _What do you mean?"_

" _I cannot explain now, there is not enough time, but hear this..."_

 _It paused, and Sam couldn't tell whether it was thinking or just adding drama._

" _Beware the one who commands the shadows, and fear the one who rules the dark."_

" _What?" Sam wasn't exactly sure what that meant. "_ 'rules the dark'?" _She thought._

" _In time, you will learn the tragic extent of my failings..."_

 _The voice started to fade away, but Sam chased after it once more. "Wait! Who are you?"_

 _Sam could almost_ feel _the voice turn back around to look at her, as if it also had a figure and a place in the dusk. "Soon. You will know soon, but for now, I cannot tell you."_

 _The voice slipped away into the folds of the black, and Sam let herself slip away too._

* * *

"Well, isn't this interesting?" The man asked. "It seems like all the pieces are starting to fall into place."

"Indeed it does," the blonde woman replied.

"Don't worry, you'll get your chance to show off later," the man reassured.

"It's not about showing off, it's about completing the mission," she replied flatly.

"And I'm sure that you'll be able to manage that too." He sighed and turned his head to look out of the large glass window before him. He could see almost everything from here, the entire city was below him and not a single building stood taller than his. The lights of buildings dotted the dark of the suburbs, but the bustling city centre was still lit up like a Catherine wheel, outlining where tourism ended and living began.

He turned away from the window and strode back into the shadowed room. His assistant followed him, her blonde hair bouncing lightly as she walked, and each step sent a reverberating echo through the nearly-empty space.

"Now we just have to wait," he said rather casually.

"Wait for what?" She asked quizzically.

He laughed. It was a horrible laugh, not one filled with kindness and joy like Tohka's or Shido's, but one of evil intent and misfortune.

"For them to turn on each other."

* * *

"I don't like this."

"Me neither. I've got this horrible feeling that everything's going to come to a point soon."

Kotori and Kannazuke both looked up at the large screen, it's ordinary display of graphs and charts being replaced with footage of Sam in her home, sleeping calmly as if nothing ever happened, which was the intention, of course. They both wore worried faces, not for Sam herself, but more for the chaos that would be unleashed if she ever found out. Last night had marked the fourth close call, and neither of them wanted a fifth to cover up.

"Perhaps-" Kannazuke began, but Kotori quickly cut him off.

"We can't tell her."

"Why not? We're both on agreement that the next incident could very well lead her to finding out, and we've been playing games with fate for long enough. If we tell her and introduce her to the truth slowly and safely, then we may be able to mitigate the damage that she could cause."

Irritated, she turned to him and raised her fist. She was about to strike, when she actually pulled back for once and spun away from him once more. Her brow formed a tight frown as she gazed off into the shadowed room.

"Commander?" Kannazuke pressed after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"This is the last chance. If there's one more run-in, then we'll tell her," Kotori uttered finally.

Kannazuke seemed content with that, and stood down.

What neither of them knew at the time, however, is that they'd never get another close call.

And that all hell was about to break loose.


	18. Resignation

_Bangs head on table._ Argh, this had taken me way too long, and I'm so sorry that I've not got much to show for my absence. I've had a lot of problems with this chapter, more than with any previous one, and I am genuinely sorry it took me so long.

Anyway, there is good news! This is just to show that I am still here and writing, and the much longer chapter 19 WILL (100%. I promise. No take-backs) will also be going up in the next 3 days, considering I've already started working on it, and it's going a lot smoother, so that's the REAL update.

I'll stop yammering now.

-Enjoy!

Also, yes, the April fools reviews now don't make sense, but it was either that or the chapter numbers not lining up.

* * *

The rhythmic ticking of the clock wasn't helping, Sam decided. She wasn't even sure why or when she had got it, but there it was, hung up in her living room, just above the moderately sized television screen, staring back at her and daring her to stop its damnable beat.

She wouldn't, of course, because then she would know she really _was_ going insane.

Sam knew something was coming, she could feel it, and it rocked her like nothing had ever done before. Never prior to, during or after any previous mission or assignment or anything had she felt so nervous.

" _Beware the one who commands the shadows, and fear the one who rules the dark."_

That sentence had replayed itself a hundred times over the last few days. Each time it did, Sam fought to suppress the urge to shiver. The things it said, and more worryingly the things it didn't gnawed at her, but that voice hadn't turned up again and she was left to come to her own conclusions, ones she didn't like.

There was another thing, too.

Shido had been trying to tell her something recently. Something he couldn't say out loud, and he never seemed to be alone. There would always be someone else. Kotori, Tohka, Reine. It didn't matter, he couldn't tell her whatever it was while they were around.

Or at least, that's what she guessed.

Sighing, she turned away from the old thing and grabbed a simple black hoodie that had been slung messily over the armchair in the corner of the room. She pulled it over her head and quickly thrust her arms into the sleeves. She relished the warmth, because even though it was the middle of spring and her house's thermostat was whacked up, she still felt cold.

She checked the clock once more. Not for the time, just to make sure it didn't have anything else to say.

 **Tick...tick...tick**

Nothing. Just a normal clock. Wooden face and metal hands; Sam felt she could probably beat that.

Somewhat frustrated with herself, she walked to the front door and made to exit the house. She hopped down the step, took her key out of the pocket of her jeans and closed the door.

The clock skipped a tick.

But Sam didn't hear it.

* * *

"Master Sergeant Origami Tobiichi, I hereby resign myself of active duty."

The captain just stared back at her with her mouth wide agape.

"Captain?" Origami asked, unsure of whether she had understood her or not.

Ryouko Kusakabe, the spunky, quick-tempered captain of Origami's AST team, was left speechless, a feeling she wasn't used to.

"Captain? Do you-"

She raised a hand and stopped Origami mid-sentence. "Origami, this is about that girl, isn't it?" She asked, somewhat crestfallen.

Origami dismissed herself and changed her stance to a more comfortable one, figuring that the captain probably wouldn't deny her that small respite. "Captain, it's true that that girl _is_ part of the reason, but..." She trailed off as Ryouko turned away from her, slowly spinning her chair around to gaze out of the large glass window. Silence befell the room, and Origami couldn't help but go slightly woozy.

"You were always my favourite, Origami. Did you know that?"

She looked back up at Ryouko, her back still turned to her. "Huh?"

"Despite everything. Despite all my best efforts, I failed to protect you, and I'm failing now to help you." She turned around, thoroughly down-trodden. "That day… I still think about it too. Those girls, I'll never see them again. It was my duty to protect them, and I failed. I failed miserably." Her head slowly started to droop.

"Captain..." Origami uttered, fully aware that reassurance wasn't her strong point, but doing her best anyway. She moved forwards and rested a hand on Ryouko's shoulder, trying to tell her that she was there to share the pain.

The captain's arm buckled and her head fell forward, landing heavily on the wooden desk with a loud **thunk**. "What do I do Origami? Why am I such a bad captain? Why can't I do my one job and protect my own team?" She cried, tears streaking down her face, wetting the thick wood of the desk with pure despair. "What do I do about you? What do I do about the new girl? What do I do to ensure this never happens again? I wish someone could tell me these things..."

She choked back another tear and looked up, expecting Origami to be stood above her, doing her best to comfort her, but she was nowhere to be found. She forced herself upright and quickly checked the room, but she was already long gone. Ryouko collapsed into her chair and cried, mercifully glad that the door to her office was closed.

* * *

Origami strode down the hall. She had hung up her sword, her stripes, everything. She couldn't bare to fail her team again.

No. Instead, she was going to succeed her team in her own way. She made a vow that day. A vow to the comrades she had lost, the friends that she had seen cry, the innocent lives that that girl put in harm's way.

She would kill her, and no-one was going to stop her.

* * *

Sam was sure that was the same girl from her dream. Absolutely, one-hundred-percent sure, and she wondered if Shido really realised the amount of danger that followed her. Kotori _had_ told him that she was dangerous, but she left out the number.

Over ten thousand dead by her hand.

Sam hadn't been at school today, final preparations on the suit demanded attention, so she took the day off, and could only catch the aftermath of 'Kurumi Tokisaki', which she was told was the alias Nightmare went by during her first day at the school. _"There's a thought. Why_ was _she at the school?"_

She had been filled in by Shido and Tohka after she caught up to them, shortly after Kurumi left towards her own 'home', and also by Kotori through her earpiece. From what she heard, Kurumi was very forward with Shido, and he openly expressed his gratitude when Tohka inadvertently rescued him from a situation that could have gone south fast. She was told it included stairs, short skirts and underwear, and that was all Sam really wanted to hear.

They were walking home, admiring the sunset and the breathtaking view of the city, all the while discussing what to eat for dinner, when a young girl with dark blue hair, tied up into a loose ponytail, stopped them in their tracks. Sam immediately noticed something unnerving about the girl.

"I can't believe it, it's really you..." She said, her eyes wide with surprise.

Shido's face took on a slightly confused expression and turned to Tohka, who was standing just to his left, equally confused. "Do you know this girl?"

Tohka shook her head. "No I don't."

He turned to his right, and asked the same thing to Sam, but she just gave him a shrug before turning her attention back to the girl.

The girl jogged forwards, stopping only when she was barely a foot from him, and despite Shido's below average height, the girl still had to look quite sharply up. Sam guessed that she must have been around four-feet-and-seven-inches, just from the difference in height.

"Hi!" She chirped.

Shido slightly recoiled backwards at the sudden closeness. "H-hi..."

The other two looked on bewildered, and even Kotori was unsure of what to say.

Suddenly, she leant into Shido and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Big brother!" She cheered.

"Huh!?" All four of them chanted in unison.


	19. Mana Takamiya

**Totally didn't miss the deadline by two days.**

So, here's chapter 19, and it might be a little shorter than you might have imagined. Well, that is because chapter 20 will be quite long, but I wanted it to be read with no breaks, so this was the furthest I could write for chapter 19 without ruining the pacing of chapter 20. Anyway, quite a bit is happening at the moment (as you may have noticed), but it's not gonna stop anytime soon, so hold on tight!

-Thanks, Ryan "Kurukaze" McGowan.

...And yes, I changed my pen name.

Ten internet points to whoever can guess where that name came from first!

* * *

Mana Takamiya, Shido's supposed younger sister, looked up at him with bright brown eyes. Shido looked back down at her small frame with his own, completely at a loss for words.

"Don't you remember me, big brother?" She asked, confused at her brother's apparent amnesia.

He took a step back, partially out of surprise and the first hints of wanting to flee, but also to get a better look at her, to see if he really _didn't_ recognise her. She looked quite similar to him, he figured. Same unassuming size, same hair colour, same eyes. They _could_ pass as siblings any day, without a shadow of a doubt. Shido frowned, perhaps there was more truth than he assumed at first.

He gulped, gave the girl the benefit of the doubt, and told a small white lie, "Yeah sure, sis. Would you like to come back to my place and catch up? I could introduce you to Kotori."

"'Kotori'?"

Shido mentally slapped his forehead. Of course she wasn't going to know who Kotori was. "Nevermind, you'll see soon enough. Should we get going?"

"Sure thing!" She chirped again.

The two continued on in the direction of Shido's house, which was only a short walk up the hill from here, leaving Sam and Tohka behind.

They looked at each other, both stricken with confusion. "Do you...?" Sam started.

"Nope," Tohka replied.

They continued staring at each other for some considerable length of time, before Sam snapped out of the trance and suggested that they had probably better catch up.

* * *

"Wow, nice place you got here!" Mana gawked as they stopped at the front door. "I can't wait to see it!"

Shido smiled as he unlocked the door. _"She's certainly full of energy."_

With the door unlocked, he pushed inward and it swung open to reveal the insides of his home, and a long hallway.

"Woah," Mana said as she looked around. She had to admit, it _was_ a nice place.

Shido beckoned her to follow him into the kitchen, where he knew Kotori would be waiting, and where he could finally put the heavy bags of shopping down that he'd been carrying all the way home.

Sam and Tohka were still hot on Shido and Mana's heels, but with all the excitement, it seemed as if they had been totally forgotten about. Tohka stared at Sam's back as she too made her way into the kitchen, where Mana was being greeted by a slightly apprehensive Kotori.

She frowned, and made up her mind. _"There's definitely something I don't know. Because she definitely didn't kill those girls."_ She nodded to herself. _She_ was going to get to the bottom of this, even if no-one else would.

"Tohka?" Sam asked as she poked her head out of the kitchen doorway.

"Coming!"

* * *

Sam, again, was pushed awkwardly to the side as Shido conversed with Mana and Kotori at the dining table. Tohka and Yoshino, along with Yoshinon, were sat on the couch, watching the colourful display of the three siblings. Two blood, and one legally. Sam didn't really mind it that much, and with everyone well within line-of-sight, she was increasing the chance of her doing her job.

She shook her head. They were all safe here, weren't they? Despite Nightmare's sudden reappearance after that dream, they should all be safe.

Mana and Kotori started to argue over who Shido's real sister was, and Sam pushed herself away from the wall. She walked out of the room, noticing that only Tohka watched her go. Everyone else's attention seemed to be on the heated argument.

She opened the door and stepped out into the evening air.

"Well, it's not like a real sister could _marry_ him or anything!" Sam heard Kotori shout.

She giggled slightly as she closed the door behind her, her head filling up with images of the rest of them looking back at her, either shocked, confused or both.

"Taking a step away?"

Sam tapped her earpiece, only now remembering that she still had it in. "Yes, Kannazuke. That's _way_ too much excitement for me right now," she said, chuckling softly.

She walked forward across the road and peered over the barrier, taking in the familiar sight of the city below, basked in the golden glow of the sun, light bouncing off of the towering skyscrapers.

"Sam?"

She looked up and turned around. Tohka had followed her out here, and was now standing on the other side of the road, looking quite concerned.

"Oh, hey Tohka." Sam propped herself upon her elbows by resting them on the rail and watched as Tohka looked twice, then crossed the road towards her.

"H-hey..." Tohka stopped just to Sam's left, leaning over the guardrail with a heavy sigh. "Sam."

"Yeah?" She replied, slightly turning her head.

"Do you remember what happened on that day?"

She turned her carefree stance to a more thoughtful one by lowering her head to her collarbone. She stared at the pavement. "What day?"

"When the-" she struggled to remember what Sam had called them, "- _AST_ attacked us, in the city."

"Mmm, I remember. You're not the first to ask either."

Tohka's heart skipped a beat. She was really banking on Sam _not_ knowing, and now that she had said she did, an ugly doubt started to grow in her heart.

"I remember putting myself between you two. Yoshino was cowering because of something, something I couldn't see, and you were trying to pick her up so we could get moving." Sam closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "Then the AST attacked us...and they killed me." She almost laughed at that, but she also wasn't sure why.

Tohka looked over at Sam, who was looking far up into the sky, lost in thought. She noted that she didn't look unhappy; somewhat at peace, really.

"I remember a light in the darkness. Kinda cliché if you ask me," she said nonchalantly, shrugging at the memory. "Then I remember coming back, and I could feel this crazy power pumping through my veins. I looked round at Yoshino, and that's where everything goes hazy." She turned onto her side to look at Tohka. "Kotori told me what happened next. Apparently I put some kind of force-field down to protect us, and it held long enough for them to get us out of there." She shrugged again. "That's all I can remember."

Tohka relaxed and sighed, her shoulders finally loosening up again, until she suddenly realised something was wrong. She looked back at Sam. _"That's not right. That's not right at all."_

Noticing her frown, Sam raised an eyebrow. "Something the matter, Tohka?"

She jumped in surprise. "No! Nothing!"

"You sure?"

The truth was, Tohka _wasn't_ sure. She felt as if she should tell her, but also that she really shouldn't too. She ruffled her hair in frustration.

"Tohka?" Sam asked as she moved closer and put a hand on Tohka's head to comfort her. Tohka was easily one of the only people she felt comfortable around, not even Shido or Kotori came close to the inexplicable ease that she put her at, so she had no trouble with a slightly more intimate approach. "What's wrong?"

She took in a shaky breath, and looked Sam in the eye. "That's not what happened."

"Huh? Kotori told me that you told her."

"Well, then she lied."

Sam recoiled slightly at Tohka's seriousness, and the atmosphere suddenly became incredibly ominous. The light of the sun seemed to fade, and the light from the street-lights felt as if theyhvf mn had been brutally snubbed out.

"T-Tohka? You're kind of scaring me..." She took another step back.

"Listen, Sam. On that day, something else happened..." Tohka dipped her head and stared at the pavement. Her heart drummed so loudly it almost deafened her, and her own mind seemed to resent the idea of breaking the truth to her, as if it was actively denying her wishes.

"W-what?" Sam stammered.

"On that day, you… You..." She brought her head up and forced herself to look Sam in the eyes. "You k-"

"Tohka! Hey there! I need to talk to Sam for a bit, but it's kinda private, do you mind leaving us two alone for a bit?"

They both jumped and turned to the noise. There, standing in the front doorway with one hand on her hip, was Mana, who's eyes were narrowed on the both of them.

"Well?" She asked, rather impatiently. A noticeable difference from her behaviour earlier.

Tohka recoiled and looked to Sam again, but she had suddenly lost all her confidence, so she ran past both of them and sprinted into the house, hiding her face as she went. Sam stretched a hand out, but it was a gesture wasted in vain, and she could only watch as she disappeared into the house.

She stared Mana down, who was still stood on the other side of the road. "What do you want?" She asked harshly.

Mana strode purposefully across the road towards her, somehow making her tiny frame look intimidating, while also still looking like she was incredibly bored. "You could start by explaining _this_." She presented a small photo once she stopped a little way from Sam and held it out for her to see. She snatched the photo out of her hand and studied it closer.

"Where did you get this!?" Sam demanded as she realised what it showed. It was her, unmistakeably so, fighting the AST during the first run-in with Yoshino at the department store. In particular, it showed her biting into one of the unit's personal barrier shield with her plasma gauntlets. Sam remembered that moment vividly, and she was sure that there was no way a picture at this angle should exist.

"And what about this one?" She taunted, completely ignoring Sam's interjection, while presenting another picture.

Sam reached over and grabbed this one from Mana's hand too. This one showed her with her arms wrapped tightly around Shido, just after he got up from being shot by Origami, during the first date with Tohka. She remembered this moment too, and again, this picture absolutely _could not have happened_.

Without giving Sam time to properly process this newest picture, Mana pulled out another one. "Or how about _this_ one?"

Sam clenched her fist around the two photos, and made to do the same with the third, when she saw exactly what this one portrayed. It was her and Shido, playing video games on the night of Tohka's arrival of her house. The TV glowed softly, and showed the scoreboard after one of the races. Sam recognised that track, and as she looked closer, she remembered that exact moment. She dropped it in shock. "H-how!?"

Mana laughed. "Easy."

And then Sam watched as she vanished into thin air.

" _Where did she…?"_ Sam thought as she dropped her stance.

"Behind you!"

She spun around at the voice, and came face-to-face with Mana again.

She jumped back, but when she landed, she somehow backed up into her. She pivoted on her left foot, and without thinking, brought her right hand sailing through the air for a vicious hook, intended for Mana's face, but her punch ended up going sailing through the air.

Mana tutted. "Nope! You are _not_ allowed to punch me!"

Sam growled. "I'll be the decider of that!"

Mana appeared again a little way down the road, with her back turned to Sam. Sam frowned, and started to close the gap.

"It doesn't matter, I got what I came for."

She skidded to a halt with a slight **snick** of her trainers and stared at Mana. "What do you mean?"

She turned her head to look Sam in the eye, and again, somehow make her tiny frame look menacing. "You'll see soon enough~!" She sang.

Sam blinked, and she was gone, just like that. She stood still, too shocked to move, then realised something. She quickly thrust her hand up to her ear. "Kannazuke, please tell me you got all that!"

"I did Sam, and I'm running a background check now," he replied.

"Great, notify me when you've got something!"

"Will do."

She looked down the road again, the sun bright and the street-lights glowing warmly again, fending off encroaching shadows.

" _Beware the one who controls the shadows, and fear the one who rules the dark."_

That sentence replayed itself in Sam's head again, and as it did, she suddenly realised that she wanted to be back inside with the others, so that's exactly what she did.


	20. Hunter and Hunted

I. AM. BACK. So yes, I've been away for a while. A _long_ while, but I really did need it. I had completely lost my drive for a bit, but it's back now, fortunately, and I don't plan to go away for that long ever again. I apologise so much for my absence, and to everyone still reading, you have my deepest gratitude.

-Thanks so much, Ryan "Kurukaze" McGowan

* * *

-Chapter 20

"Tobiichi? Tobiichi?" Miss Okiminae looked up from the register and quickly scanned across the students in front of her, looking for Origami's beautiful streaks of bleached-white hair. "Is Tobiichi here today?" she called out as a few heads started to turn. She sighed and looked back down at the sheet of paper and scratched a neat diagonal line into the box next to Origami's name with a sharp pencil. She traced down to the next name: Tokisaki Kurumi. "Tokisaki? Is Tokisaki here today either?" Tamae had a feeling she wasn't, however, as she hadn't seen that remarkable jet black hair of hers while she was looking for Origami just a moment ago, and she certainly couldn't see it now.

Sam looked round at Shido and Tohka, who were sat just a few desks away. She had only managed to get into Shido's homeroom, however, under the alias of 'Amy', Sam's younger sister, whereas Sam herself had transferred schools. She also had to wear a long blonde wig to hide her wild, short, cyan-dyed mop for obvious reasons. She watched as Shido looked back at her and frowned. _"He doesn't know where they are either..."_ Sam shook her head and turned back to watch the door – which was thrown wide open – and as she did so, Kurumi Tokisaki strode in, staring directly at her. A shudder sparked up her spine; this was the first time they had properly met, and it took all of Sam's self-control not to just charge straight at her or away from her. Instead, she calmly observed as Nightmare bowed low to the teacher and apologised for being late, before taking a seat between Sam and Shido. Sam also noticed that Tohka had shifted ever so slightly closer to Shido.

" _She can tell something's up,"_ Sam thought, before slowly coaxing her gaze away from the murderous girl.

She allowed herself to become lost in her own speculations and imaginings as the chattering around her became a distant background noise, like static on the radio.

" _Nice hair."_

Sam sprung upright at the sound of the voice. It almost sounded like it had come from her own thoughts.

" _I wonder how many people here are actually buying it."_

She looked around again, and that's when she saw Kurumi smirking at her. _"Oh, so this is a thing you can just_ do _then?"_ Sam asked...

...through her mind.

" _Yep! Cool, isn't it?"_

" _Not particularly."_

Kurumi visibly huffed at Sam's disinterest, and turned her body back to face Shido, only sparing one last glance in Sam's direction.

"Creepy girl," Sam mumbled under her breath.

* * *

A few minutes later, just as everyone was starting to get up and wander over to lessons, Sam's phone softly buzzed. She put her bag back down onto the floor and reached into her pocket, fishing the thing out and opening the message. She quickly glanced at it, getting the general idea, and put it away again, making a mental note. The message read: "Hey Sam! I've already told Shido, and I need you to come to the chemistry preparation room at lunch today. It's important." She had no idea why Kotori had kept the message so vague, but she was sure she had a good reason for it.

Probably.

* * *

Lunchtime arrived quickly, and as soon as the bell rang and her lesson ended (not that she actually needed to learn anything) Sam briskly walked down the winding corridors and halls of the rather large building. For some reason, she couldn't help but think back to that day when she met Tohka, and how the school was in complete ruin. Quite impressive that it was rebuilt so quickly, really.

As her thoughts subsided, she turned a corner and stopped at the door to the room, positioned at one end of the science corridor. She slid the door across, making sure to check if anyone was watching, and swiftly entered, closing the door behind her. She looked around her and squinted her eyes at the dim lighting, and just like she expected, Shido, Kotori and Reine were all watching a monitor in one corner of the room, the soft greenish glow of the screen the only light source. She strode forwards past various bits of lab equipment: flasks, test tubes, Bunsen burners, everything you could expect, until she stopped and peered at the screen over Shido's shoulder.

"Oh good, you're finally here." Kotori said, then added: "Nice hair."

Sam scowled and shook the wig off of her, exposing her blue hair once more. "What did you want, exactly?"

Kotori span around in the chair and tapped something onto the keyboard, and a moment later, a picture of an alleyway appeared on the screen. Sam – and she was sure Shido would too – immediately recognised it as being quite near to his house. She also noticed that at the far end, half concealed in shadows, Kurumi stood in a pool of blood. Dashes of the crimson liquid were also splattered haphazardly along the brick walls, tainting the usual white brick with a sickening red, like some twisted painter's masterpiece. The stains clearly pointed to a _very_ violent death, and Shido subtly gagged beside Sam.

Shido was the first to ask. "Wh-what's going on here?"

Sam nodded. That question was on her mind too.

Fortunately, an answer came quickly as Kotori hit the space bar, and the picture continued into the video that it was. The camera angle shifted, and showed Mana standing at the opposite end, staring down Kurumi, still dressed in the same hoodie and jeans as the evening they met. Sam shivered slightly at the sight of her. She hadn't told anyone else of the...'exchange' they'd had. The feed was fuzzy and skipped every now and then, suggesting that this was all recorded using some old cameras, or that perhaps something else was affecting the quality.

The next camera change confirmed that as the AST, hovering in a tight formation, appeared. Sam couldn't shake the awful feeling in her stomach as she noticed the absence of Origami. Surely she would have been there considering the target, right?

Right?

She shook her head and looked back at the screen, just as the camera jumped again. This time, it showed just Kurumi, now enveloped in a black aura. A second later, she reappeared, dressed in that same red-and-black outfit that Sam had seen her in when she was visited in her dreams, which when Sam told Kotori about it, she was corrected about the design. Apparently, it _wasn't_ a maid's outfit, but a gothic lolita dress, as if Sam cared. She was also made aware that that was Nightmare's Spirit Armour, which _was_ something Sam cared about, but she had already figured as much.

The camera jumped again, and the group was presented with a much farther-out angle. This one showed Mana, who was turned away from the camera and dressed in a suit not entirely unlike the AST's CR-Units, but was also very different in many ways. Sam ended up drawing more parallels between her designs than the AST's. It also showed Kurumi, raising an arm up and pointing her open palm towards Mana, almost as if she was preparing some sort of attack.

Suddenly, four thin beams of light thrust outwards from the forearm of Mana's suit, impaling the Spirit and causing her to collapse to the ground. At this, Shido gasped and recoiled a half-step, bumping into Sam.

"It gets worse," Kotori said without looking away. Sam and Shido looked at each other, nodded, and turned their morbidly-curious stares back to the monitor. Kurumi stood shakily up, before another shot sliced through her. She fell backwards in a hump, and Mana slowly stalked closer, drawing a blade akin the Origami's, but very different in shape. It was pointed like a spike, but also flat like any blade, and it extended from a similarly shaped contraption on her arm. Sam knew what was coming next, and she would have turned away if she could, but that same morbid curiosity locked her vision, and her legs suddenly became like lead. She could only hope Shido was prepared for it too.

Shido, however, wasn't, and when Mana thrust the blade into the collapsed Kurumi, slicing her up again and again and again, Shido surged forwards and slammed his hand on the keyboard, shutting the video down. "Enough!" he shouted, a faint flicker of desperation audible in his strangled tone.

Sam let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding and placed a hand on Shido's shaking shoulder. They both looked towards Kotori, but it was Reine who answered the silent question instead.

"That happened last night. The night you met Mana. As you can see, the video doesn't lie." Reine paused, and Sam could have sworn it was just for effect. Either way, it worked, as Reine's next words sent a chill right through her.

"Kurumi Tokisaki should be dead."


	21. Double Date, Part One

So, this marks the end to my longest absence so far, and I am deeply sorry for being gone so long. I also intend to keep this as my longest absence, but we'll just have to see. Either way, this is only part one of two, and the following chapter will be up in the next few days. I'll be gone for a little while after that, but I'll still be writing, so there should be a nice long treat for you all when I get back. Anyway, for those of you still reading, I thank you more than I could ever express with words, especially for being so patient with me. Without further ado, please enjoy DAL:SS Chapter 21: Double Date, Part 1

* * *

The rest of the day continued as normal, and as the sun started sluggishly drifting towards the horizon, and the students started gathering their things for the holiday ahead, Shido found Kurumi by her locker, just as she was slipping on her brown school shoes. He asked Kurumi out on a date, to which she accepted, of course, and ran off innocently, humming to herself. Shido managed to keep a cheery tone while he was talking, but as soon as the Spirit turned and left, his expression darkened. Sam appeared beside him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She squeezed it softly.

They were to continue with the plan, regardless of the situation with Kurumi's death and Mana's involvement. In fact, just as Kotori had brought up earlier when Shido confronted her about it, that was the exact reason they _were_ going with the plan. They needed to seal Nightmare quickly.

"Come on, let's go see Tohka. We sorta ditched her over lunch today," Sam said as she scratched her chin. She too was running the meeting over in her head again. Shido nodded absently, watched Kurumi disappear around a corner, and followed after Sam.

* * *

The shadowy fingers of the city stretched far and wide as Sam, Shido and Tohka all made their way up the sharp slope. The sun was approaching the hills now, and in a few hours, it would be lost to the invisible clutches of the night, only to break free once again the next morning. It was mostly silent, save for the rhythmic scuff of their shoes and the occasionally streak of headlights and wheels. Sam was trailing behind, watching quietly as Shido and Tohka talked. Tohka had been feeling off all day, and it was blindingly obvious to her. Shido, however, seemed to miss it completely.

"I'm sorry for leaving you during lunch today," Shido started quietly, "but you got a chance to eat, right?"

Tohka looked down at the floor. "Yeah, I got to eat," she said meekly.

She recalled her lunch: sat on her own, eating out of her bento box, wondering where Shido was and trying not to cry. She would have completely broken down had it not been for some of her friends who had noticed and done their best to console her.

Tohka reached into her pocket and clutched the two tickets her friends had given her. She didn't know what an 'Aquarium' was. All she knew was that she wanted to go on another date with Shido, and those girls had told her that this was the best course of action. She looked back at Sam, who gave her a polite wave, but sent a spark of…

Well, Tohka wasn't quite sure what this feeling was, and she hoped it wasn't because of the dark thought she'd just had:

" _I don't want her near my Shido."_

She quickly covered her mouth, almost as if that wicked thought could escape through her lips if she wasn't careful, and dropped her gaze again. Now she knew what that feeling was.

It was guilt.

* * *

A few minutes later, the front door to Shido's house was swung open, and they all climbed inside. Shido and Tohka made straight for the kitchen, whilst Sam waited around the hallway for a few moments, thinking to herself and pondering Tohka's behaviour.

" _What was that look all about?"_ Sam asked herself, and even though she wasn't expecting an answer, she was still disappointed when none came.

She groaned, took the wig off, buried a hand in her hair and shuffled forwards to ask Shido about it. However, when she peeked in through the door to the kitchen, she saw that all the curtains were closed, drowning the room in a purple light. By the couch, Shido stood watching Tohka, half bemused and half terrified. Switching her gaze to Tohka now – who was standing by the curtains, shrouded in a shadowy aura that would have worried Sam had she not already known it was just the weird lighting – she watched as she undid the ribbon around her neck and dropped it to the floor. Next, Tohka started to unbutton her shirt from the collar down.

One button…

Two buttons…

Three buttons…

Sam quickly turned around before she saw any more and strode out of the house. She wasn't sure what Tohka was up to, and she didn't really want to know. This was inappropriate anyway, regardless of the age difference.

Sam paused at that. How old _was_ Tohka? They had all mutually agreed that she was the same age as Shido, but how true really was that? And what about Yoshino?

Yoshino… Sam had the feeling that she was avoiding her for some reason. A reason she couldn't remember.

And then there was Kotori and Shido, both of which had a weird air about them. The only person who didn't seem different around her was Kannazuke.

"Or maybe he's just hiding it better?"

The voice startled Sam, and she was down in her combat stance before she even figured out who it was from.

But of course, she knew who it was from.

Kurumi stepped out from a nearby alley, dressed in her Spirit Armour, the red and black dress billowing out around her in the light breeze. Sam turned to her and waited.

"So, how've you been?" Kurumi casually asked.

Sam narrowed her eyes and reached up to her ear. She felt the invisible earpiece, and pressed the tiny button on the side. Hopefully someone would be listening on the other end. "What's it to you?" she replied, lowering her hand again.

Kurumi opened her arms and smiled. "Come on, we're friends now! There's no need to to tell your little buddies that I'm here! Besides-" She exploded towards Sam, moving with frightening speed, and Sam could only throw her hands forwards before Kurumi was upon her, her face right up against Sam's cheek. She tried to move, tried to get away from the sudden choking closeness, but she couldn't back up; she was paralysed to the spot. "-I only want to talk to you."

Kurumi picked at the small device and inspected it as it reappeared in her hand. Turning to face Sam, their faces still frighteningly near, she dropped it and crushed it under the thick sole of her boot. "See? Much better."

Sam found she could finally move her legs, so she quickly put a pace or two between them and wiped the sweat from her brow. "What do you want?" she spat.

Nightmare sighed and shook her head. "You're no fun."

"It's not my job to be fun," Sam said with disgust, then added: "And especially not with you."

"What is your job then, Sammy?"

Sam knew she was falling into a trap, but to back out now would be to give Kurumi this little victory. "To protect Shido from murderous Spirits like you." She squared up to her. Sam held almost a foot over her, and she was going to put it to good use.

Kurumi clapped her hands and smiled wide, seemingly delighted with the answer. "That's exactly right! Still, tomorrow, if I see you for even a moment, I _will_ kill you and I _will_ eat tasty little Shido."

The way Kurumi licked her lips as she said that made Sam want to be sick, but she forced herself to stay focused. "Hmph. You can try."

"Ooo! Feisty!"

Sam made a face. "Are you done?"

Kurumi nodded and bowed. "I am. You may go now."

At that, Sam snorted. "I am eternally grateful," she sneered, her voice laced with poison and spite while a mocking smile spread across her lips.

Kurumi didn't reply though. She simply sank into the concrete, vanishing into her own shadow.

When Sam got home later that night – and she'd never tell anyone this – she grabbed that infernal clock from her living room, and chucked it into the dumpster outside her house.

She would have done it eventually, she told herself.

* * *

"I can't believe you're double booked on such an _unbelievably important day!_ " Kotori shouted.

Shido winced and held a hand up to his ear, feeling the small device inside. He was stood just outside the station, and all around him, people flooded to and from various buildings and stores. The air was alive with the hubbub of a busy city, but from where he was stood, most of it was drowned out by the moderately large fountain behind him, its clean white marble shaped into simple but beautiful patterns. The air was also alive with various delicious smells. From bakeries and cafés to restaurants and food stalls, everyone seemed to be out selling something. Shido had no doubt that he was going to be dragged along to all of them at some point.

He looked down at himself, and checked his clothes: a simple grey T-shirt, a white-and-black jacket and a pair of close-fitting blue jeans. A relaxed outfit, but one that still looked good.

At last, he nodded, satisfied with everything, and replied. "Hey, _you're_ the one who kept me from cancelling!"

His red-headed sister huffed, her patience already at it's limit. "Well duh! Obviously you couldn't cancel!"

"And why not?"

"Because you _need_ to seal Nightmare. She's dangerous, and every second that she has her powers is another second that you're in danger."

"Oh, so _now_ you care about my-"

"-And," Kotori butted in, "you _need_ to give Tohka this, otherwise her happiness could go critical, and the seal could be undone!"

Shido sighed. Perhaps Kotori was right. "Okay sis. Besides, it could always be a lot worse."

"How, exactly?"

"I could always be _triple_ -booked."

The line went silent for a few moments; a silence that Shido very much enjoyed, but then he was suddenly reminded of who was on the other end.

Kotori cackled loudly and wiped a tear from her eye. "Like that would ever happen!"

Shido frowned and crossed his arms. "I was just saying..."

"Either way, there's no backing out now. Sam!"

Far away from the station, perched high up on a rooftop with just her head peaking over the short wall that lined the perimeter of her position, crouched Sam, equipped with her new armour. Her wings were missing, and so was the weapons that she had drawn up to go with the new design, but she was still fairly confident. The sleek edges were a far cry from the welded plates of the last design, and the three cores glowed a piercingly bright blue. Those same 'veins' carried the energy to where it needed to be, and they also glowed a bright blue, albeit much softer. "I'm in position!" Sam responded, sliding the new visor over her eyes and adjusting her new headpiece.

"Great. Now we're just waiting on Tohka," Kotori said, leaning back in her chair.

Kannazuke took up his position and put a simple headset over his head. He took a moment to adjust the microphone and then coughed to clear his throat. "Sam, I'll be your in-ear voice for this one. Kotori will be too busy making choices for Shido and ensuring everything goes smoothly to direct you as well."

"You got it," came Sam's snappy reply.

Kannazuke nodded and turned to the clock. _"Tohka should be arriving any moment now. I just hope everyone's ready."_ He cast his mind back. _"And what was last night all about?"_ shaking his head, he made a mental note to ask Samanya about it later. No point jumping to conclusions.

* * *

"So...how'd it go with Tohka last night?"

Shido frowned. "Why, _exactly_ , are you asking me this, Sam?"

Sam shrugged and grinned. "Just curious."

"Well it's none of your business. And nothing really happened anyway!"

"Ooo~! Someone's flustered!"

Shido scowled, and even though he couldn't see Sam watching him, he knew that she'd see his expression.

"Hey, you two, break it up," Kotori interjected. "And get ready! Tohka's arriving now!"

Just as she finished her sentence, Tohka came running into view, one hand waving erratically above her head and the other holding onto a beige handbag she had slung over her shoulder. She was wearing a bright pink summer dress, accented with white and small dashes of yellow, and a pair of blue denim shorts.

All Shido could do was stare at Tohka as she ran towards him, her long purple hair bouncing joyfully with each step and her colourful outfit gently rustling in the breeze.

She skidded to a stop just before Shido and looked up, smiling expectantly. "Well? What do you think?"

Shido was still speechless, and it wasn't until he'd looked Tohka up-and-down three times over that he could finally speak. "You...look incredible!"

Tohka blushed slightly and looked away. "Th-Thanks Shido… But who cares about the stupid dress!" Tohka quickly added, "Come on! Let's go!"

She turned tail and started striding forwards, completely in the wrong direction. Shido caught up and grabbed her wrist, turning her to face him.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?"

Sam stifled a laugh.

Tohka looked down sheepishly. "N-No..." she murmured.

Shido sighed, shook his head, and led Tohka by the arm in the opposite direction. "Do you even know what an Aquarium is?"

Again, Tohka looked downwards. "No... I just wanted to go on a date," she mumbled.

Shido rolled his eyes and smiled. "An Aquarium is a place where they keep loads of things that live in water, like fish."

At the word 'fish', Tohka perked up and did a complete turnabout. "Fish? What kind of fish? Fried fish?"

"No."

"What about steamed fish?"

"No."

"Boiled fish?"

"Tohka."

"Poached fish?!"

"Is food all you ever think about?!" He looked down and let out a breath. "Nevermind. You'll know it when you see it."

They continued walking towards the main entrance, when Sam spotted Kurumi slowly making her way up the stairs towards the same fountain where Shido was standing, just twenty minutes before.

" _Hang on. Twenty minutes? She's early..."_ Sam was confirmed by Kannazuke, who voiced that same thought.

"She's early," he said.

"I guess she's just impatient," Kotori mused, and continued sucking on her lollipop.

"What should I do?" Sam asked into her headset.

"Nothing. Just stay put, and don't let her see you. This isn't really that big of a deal," Kannazuke replied.

"You got it." Sam spared one more glance over at the black-haired spirit, before ducking back down behind the wall and moving across to the other side to give her a slightly better view of the Aquarium.

* * *

"Mana. Watch out. We've got some weird readings."

Mana tilted her head and tapped the earpiece in her ear. "What do you mean?"

"A lot of energy, but not magical. It's conventional energy."

"What?"

"We're trying to figure it out too, but it's scrambling our sensors. Either on purpose, or by accident. Just be careful down there."

"Affirmative."

* * *

"Woah! I can't believe this place is real!"

"Tohka! Use your inside voice."

"Sorry, but I just can't help myself." Tohka wandered forwards, her feet landing with a soft **clang** on the smooth metal. Above her, in the shape of a half-pipe, the glass ceiling stretched forwards and let her see all kinds of swimming creatures. Mantarays, Turtles, various kinds of fish that she couldn't help but imagine eating. "This is the neatest thing ever."

Shido caught up to her, and took a moment to appreciate everything around him as well. "It is cool, isn't it?"

"And those are really real fish out there?" she asked, still gazing out up at the crystal-clear water.

"Yeah. More than just fish," Shido replied.

"Wow...it's all so beautiful." Tohka turned around and bent over slightly, her arms loosely by her side. "Come on! I wanna go see the rest." she span around and skipped off down the corridor. However, when Shido was about to follow her, he was interrupted by Kotori.

"Hey, Shido. It's almost time to meet with Kurumi."

Shido ducked down a little. "What, already?" he whispered.

"We'll pick you up using Fraxinus, so go outside where there's no-one around."

Tohka stopped skipping ahead and looked back at Shido. She frowned. "Are you coming? 'Cuz you haven't moved a bit."

Shido suddenly doubled over and wrapped his arms tightly around his stomach while moaning and feigning pain. "Agh! Ah! Ow!"

Tohka's eyes widened and she sprinted back towards him. "Oh no! What's wrong with you?!"

He held a hand up to stop her and turned away from her, one eye clenched shut in a bid to sell the act. "It's nothing. Only my stomach. I'm gonna head to the bathroom. Keep looking at the fish for a while!"

With that, he spun on his heel and ran. He still kept his arms firmly around his stomach and continued grunting complaints as he sped away.

"Are you going to be okay?" Tohka asked as he retreated down the hall. She watched him go; her eyes sad and her shoulders drooped, disappointed, worried and anxious all at the same time. Shido would feel bad later, but it was necessary for now.

He kept running until he was far from the main entrance, and didn't stop until he rounded a corner behind the large building, and took cover behind a wooden pallet. A moment later, he was whisked away by a flash of light. He landed on his backside in the Fraxinus' teleporter room, but before he could even stand up, he teleported away again.

"Book it to the gates in front of the station. She's near where you met up with Tohka," Kotori instructed.

"I'm going, I'm going!"

* * *

"Sir, the two main targets have been spotted within an appropriate vicinity. Should I engage?"

"Wait. Not yet. There will be another chance, soon."

"How can you be sure?"

"It's a date, isn't it? Of course they'll be together. You just have to wait a little longer.


	22. Double Date, Part Two

Hey there, Kurukaze here. Just wanted to say thanks again as usual to everyone still putting up with my horrendous update schedule, but I promise this one wasn't even my fault. I had to go away for 2 weeks without my laptop.

So yeah, not fun.

Anyway, I won't stall any longer. I hope you enjoy Date A Live: Samanya's Story, Chapter 22: Double Date, Part two

Oh yeah, there's a thought...

* * *

Kurumi stood waiting and smiled genuinely as Shido approached before turning to face him as he got close. Shido stopped a few feet in front of her, gave her a guilty smile, and then rested his hands on his knees as he tried to get his breath back.

Finally, he looked up again. "I'm...I'm sorry I'm late," he panted.

She giggled and her smile widened a tiny bit more. "Don't worry!" she chirped in her usual sing-song voice, "I actually only got here around a minute ago myself."

" _Liar,"_ Sam mused.

" _If you dare interrupt, I will kill you."_

Sam yelped in surprise and ducked lower. That was definitely Kurumi's voice.

"Really? That's pretty lucky!" Shido scratched the back of his head and forced a small laugh, but it just came of as awkward and forced.

Surprisingly.

"So...where do you want to go first?" Kurumi asked, grabbing Shido's attention again. It was only now that he noticed what the Spirit was wearing, and even though he knew what Nightmare was capable of, he had to admit that she looked stunning.

She was wearing a dark, Gothic dress not too unlike her Spirit Armour, but without any of the red highlights and many of the accessories, such as the pocket watch on her side or the large bow on her front. It was also far more reserved, and showed significantly less skin. Her hair was loose, almost bob-like and it covered her left eye; the eye that looked like a clock. Her right eye, the more normal one despite the unnatural crimson colour poked out as her bangs stretched down into twintails that fell against her chest. Each tail was also tied up with a pink bow, and she held onto a black and purple handbag.

Not exactly inconspicuous, but still very flattering.

Shido tore his eyes away from her outfit and made a face. "Hmm, let me think."

"That's our cue!" Kotori cheered as the three choices appeared on-screen.

"What have we got?" Sam asked as she risked poking her head out over the low wall again.

Kannazuke looked up from the monitor. "We've got either a movie, going shopping or..."

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"...A lingerie store," Kotori finished.

"Huh?"

* * *

"Sir, permission to move to another vantage point?"

"Why?"

"I'd like to find out what this other energy source is. It could be important."

The line went silent for a moment.

"No. Stay put. If you start something else, then you could jeopardize the whole mission. Right now, your primary objective is neutralising Nightmare. Mark that under a secondary objective, only to be pursued after completion of the main goal."

"Understood."

* * *

"What?! A Lingerie store for real?!"

"Quit being so loud, pervert!"

Shido winced and balled his fist as he turned away from Kurumi, but before he could begin shouting at his little sister for being so absurd, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"If that's what you want...I don't mind going to one of those stores."

"She took the bait and ran with it!" Yoshinon blurted out from aboard The Fraxinus. The little rabbit's eyes, like everybody else's, were glued to the screen, and the slightly flustered-looking Kurumi which it displayed.

"She's so bold!" Yoshino added, her hand covering her mouth in surprise.

"Wait she said yes?!"

"Sam! Shut up!"

"Sorry!"

Shido took a moment – just a moment – to register what just happened, before finally being able to speak again. "Great! Then let's go!" he forced himself to say.

"It'll be your job to help me pick out something cute!" Kurumi smiled with joy and hugged Shido's arm as they walked off, away from the station, and towards the shop. Shido was still extremely apprehensive about the whole idea, and as they approached, Kurumi was almost dragging him inside. Not that she seemed to mind, however.

They entered through the glass double-doors, and Shido watched longingly as they swung shut behind him, but then as Kurumi tried to get his attention again, he was forced to let it go. He took a deep breath, and continued into the store.

"Wow! There's so much here for me to try on!" Kurumi sang as she strode further, her eyes sparkling like a kid's in a candy shop. She stopped at a wall on one side. On it were rows and rows and rows of underwear, all in various patterns, colours or sizes. The choice on display was actually quite impressive, and as much as Shido tried to avoid looking at any of it, upon finding that all around him was mostly the same, he figured he might as well at least watch Kurumi.

"Hey, Shido, which do you think is better?" she asked as she held up two designs. One was a refreshing baby blue, unlike Kurumi's clothes at all, but still nice. The other was pink with black lace highlights. The second was much more suited to the gothic girl, but even so, Shido had no idea what to say.

Fortunately, the ever-present and ever-watchful eye of The Fraxinus and its crew had this one.

Unfortunately, the conclusion they came to was worse than he could have imagined.

A small bead of sweat trailed down the back of his neck as Shido opened his dry mouth. "I think they both look really pretty, but uhh...I like that style over there." He slowly pointed a shaking finger at a mannequin standing just behind Kurumi. It was wearing a black, lacy design that, admittedly, would look perfect on a her, but it _was_ also quite scandalous.

"What? You like the black one and you think it's better than these two?" Kurumi asked, a little surprised.

Shido recoiled and started stammering. "Yeah! Just because I think you'd look great in it!"

"Well that's very sweet of you to say," she replied as she pulled out one in her size from beside it. "I'll try it on so we know for sure."

Kurumi walked into the dressing room and slid the curtain over, leaving Shido outside, awkwardly standing around while a large group of disgusted teenage girls amassed behind him and started staring. He didn't dare turn around, but he could still feel their piercing glares. "C-Cool, that sounds wonderful. J-Just please make it quick, okay?"

* * *

Sam hummed to herself as she inspected the back of her hand. It was mostly lacking in armour, and the only substantial protection the suit offered was from the bodysuit and her personal shield. However, connected at each joint was an intricate hydraulic system that mirrored the muscles and tendons within her actual hand. This allowed for better grip and more resistance when punching. If she had just gone with a metal gauntlet, then she couldn't have either of those.

As she clenched her fist, watching the complex machinery at work, Sam thought she noticed a blur speed past her. She quickly stood up and looked around, but she couldn't see anything.

"What the…?"

She looked for a second longer, before ducking back down. It was probably just a bird or something.

* * *

A few minutes later, Kurumi stepped out, dressed in nothing but the black underwear. It showed off a lot of skin, and outlined her extraordinary figure extraordinarily well. "So, what do you think?"

Shido stared, stunned, as his mouth hung open uselessly. _"She's…_ _gorgeous..."_

Even the voice inside Shido's head was slurred as he gaped at her.

"Umm, what do you think you're doing, mister?" a voice from behind him demanded.

Shido almost leaped out of his skin upon hearing the cold voice, and as he turned around, what he feared most was confirmed.

Ai, Mai and Mii, Shido's three absolutely inseparable, never not attached at the hip to the other, classmates. Out of the three, it was Ai specifically who spoke.

And then, as their quirk goes, they all proceeded to speak in their usual order.

"What's this loser doing with Kurumi?" Ai asked.

"Good question. And what's with the lingerie?" Mai added.

"That's _so lame_!" Mii continued.

Rooted to the spot, Shido could only squirm as he tried to think of a way out of this mess. "L-Ladies, y-you've got it all wrong! Really!"

"Oh for the love of- Shido! Stop embarrassing yourself and just get out of there! And make sure to compliment Kurumi on your way out!" Kotori instructed. At this, Shido doubled over and feigned the same pain and cramps that he had shown Tohka earlier.

He turned to Kurumi, his arms wrapped around his stomach, and forced himself to look up. "Ow! Ow-ow...my stomach… Kurumi, I'm going to the restroom. I'll catch up with you in a bit!" Shido took off down the aisle, but before he left the building completely, he shouted over his shoulder, "Also you look in-frikkin'-credible!"

Kurumi blushed and rested her cheek on the palm of her hand, partially out of pity. "Wow..."

Ai, Mai and Mii weren't planning on letting Shido off that easily, however, and they immediately followed suit, pounding down the aisles after him.

"Hey, where are you going?!"

"Get back here right now!"

"You are _so lame_!"


	23. Double Date, Part Three

-Chapter 23

Shido ran hard, slamming his soles into the pavement as he propelled himself forwards, desperate to get away from the three girls chasing after him. Sam, Kotori and the others watched from above, while Kurumi went about buying the underwear and leaving the store, a slightly disappointed look on her face, but she wasn't too bothered. She knew she'd get her way regardless.

Shido turned round a corner and ducked into a tight, dim alleyway. The stink was horrible, to say the least, but it was a good deal better than having to combat his friends all day. He jumped behind a large dumpster and took cover for a few minutes.

"Where did he go?" Ai questioned as she came to the halting realisation that they'd lost him.

They were stood just at the opening to the alley, and as Shido held his breath hoping they wouldn't notice his quivering form behind the huge container, they strode back and forth.

"I can not believe this!" Mai exclaimed.

Shido would never be able to explain why they almost always spoke in the same order.

"This. is. _so. Lame._ " Mii crossed her arms and frowned.

They all continued looking about for a moment, before continuing their search elsewhere, and stalking down the street. Shido let out a long, shaky exhale and slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened them, however, he was not met with the sight he expected.

"O-Origami?!"

The white-haired girl, crouched down onto her haunches with her head cocked slightly, looked at him with those same piercing, unblinking eyes. Shido slowly edged away.

However, instead of speaking or grabbing him or doing anything particular Origami-y, she just waited there, watching him, studying him. Shido, in turn, studied back as he ran his eyes up and down her.

And that's when he noticed it.

Up and down her exposed arms were numerous grazes and cuts. The sleeves of her buttoned shirt were ripped and dirty and her skirt was torn in several places. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her normally pristine locks were ragged and sticky with grease. Shido stared at her with shock. A million thoughts bounced around inside his head.

"Origami, what happened to you?" He asked feebly, his mouth suddenly dry and his throat suddenly sore.

However, Origami simply stayed watching him, her eyelids never closing.

* * *

Sam poked her head over the side of the rooftop, and spotted Shido still behind the dumpster. She was about to jump down and ask him what was wrong, when she noticed someone else with him.

"Tobiichi? What's she doing here?" Sam whispered under her breath.

"We're not entirely sure," Kannazuke replied.

Sam waited for a moment. "Should I interrupt?"

"No. Wait there for a bit."

"What? Why?"

"Because..." Kannazuke trailed off. His mind flashed back to that fateful day, and he figured Kotori would be thinking the same. Obviously they couldn't tell her. Not yet, and definitely not right here. "Because Shido can deal with this himself, and we want to keep your interactions to a minimum, even if it's to deal with an outside variable we didn't account for."

Sam frowned and bit her lip.

"Is that understood?"

Still, she refrained from answering, her own sense clawing at her to get down there and get Shido back to the mission.

"Sam," Kannazuke said firmly.

Finally, she conceded and replied, "Understood, Sir." She backed away from the edge and ducked back down, officially leaving it to Shido.

* * *

At last, she stood up, her battered self looking slightly... _underfed_. Turning around to face the opposite direction to where Shido came in, she started to walk away. Shido followed after her, feeling as though she was silently leading him somewhere.

Tohka would be fine, right?

They disappeared further into the winding labyrinth of Tenguu City's many back alleys, before the bruised girl finally spoke.

"It's not safe for you to be alone right now."

"Huh?"

Origami turned another corner; Shido trailed closely behind.

"It's dangerous. Too dangerous right now. I need to protect you."

"Protect me? Protect me from what? Origami!" Shido reached out and grabbed Origami by the shoulder. He went to turn her around, but, completely out-of-the-blue, she collapsed and started crying.

* * *

"Sir, a tertiary contact has been spotted interacting with the primary target. Orders?"

"Leave it. It's just that ex-AST unit. She's not a threat.

"Confirmed." Mana waited for a while, perched high up on another rooftop, overseeing the whole date from her impressive vantage point far above. She panned her eyes over the scene, her visor's display chiming worriedly as it picked out the source of the power. Unfortunately, whoever or whatever it was was hidden from view, and her sensors were still blocked by the jamming signal.

Suddenly, she spoke up again. "Sir, with all due respect, that power source is starting to worry me."

"Why is that, Adeptus-Two?" The voice was flat and emotionless, seemingly unfazed by the sudden questioning of his orders.

"Well, I can't help but think that that energy is in some way linked to the primary target."

"Go on."

"I think it might be _her_."

The line went silent for several moments, and all that could be heard on the other end was gentle, quiet static. Eventually, the voice returned. "Nowhere in our files does it suggest that she or anyone affiliated with her could have access to that much power in such a small space."

"I know that, sir, but still..." Mana trailed off, before asking another important question, "Have we found a way past the scrambling yet?"

"We're still working on it, but there's a lot of interference."

Mana nodded. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

It all happened in a flash. Shido's hand made contact with Origami's shoulder, but then in the next instant, her legs had buckled and she fell to the hard concrete floor, scattering the long-forgotten litter with an unceremonious **THUMP**. She landed on her side, no doubt bruising or even dislocating everything that hit the ground first, and curled up into a shaking, pitiful ball. Her soft wails echoed down the narrow alley as her tears wetted the dust and dirt.

"O-Origami!" Shido burst out in horror, before quickly crouching down to soothe the mewling girl in any way he could. He reached out and gently caressed her arm. It was cold; horribly so. He almost didn't even want to touch it, but he forced himself to. "Origami..."

Origami lay there, quivering and crying as Shido could do nothing but stay with her, until finally she had cried herself dry. She sat up, unable to meet Itsuka's concerned gaze. She tried once to speak, but all that came out of her dry mouth was a strained groan. She closed her mouth again and dropped her head, before trying once more. "Sh-Shido..." she managed to get out, before her voice went hoarse again.

"I'm here! I'm here." Fear splashed across his face as his best friend fell apart in front of him.

Origami looked at him, finally able to look him in the eye. "Are you? Are you really?"

The question caught Shido wildly off-guard. "What?"

Her face was contorted and ugly with pain, but she kept pushing herself to say what she needed to say. "We're supposed to be together, but you never call or ask to spend time with me… You never ask me how I am, you never seem to care… Is there something wrong with me? There is, isn't there?! Please, Shido! What's wrong with me?!" She pleaded and begged and grabbed at Shido's T-shirt even though her grip was too weak to hold on for long. Her hands dropped away. "Why can't I do anything right…?"

"Origami..."

"Why couldn't I protect them…? Why couldn't I protect myself…?"

Shido was, at first, confused at what she had said, but then eventually realised what she meant. _"Sam._ _Origami_ _must have taken all those deaths personally. God, if this is the price those around her have to pay, I hope Sam never loses it again._ _Even those who survive have something taken..._ _"_

He clenched his fist in anger. "Kotori!" he yelled, not caring if Tobiichi heard him. She wasn't likely to remember much of this anyway. She was too far gone.

"Sh-Shido! What is it?" Kotori quickly responded. Apparently she was just as shaken up as her big brother.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?"

She gritted her teeth, before shaking her head and refocusing herself. "Obviously you can't just leave her; she looks like she's on the brink. Pick her up and we'll take you to her house. Hopefully she doesn't remember any of this in the morning. Sam can stall Tohka, but Nightmare..." she never finished her sentence, because on the display in front of her, she noticed that she didn't need to. Sam had already took off in the direction of the station, bounding from building to building with serious haste. Shido, meanwhile, had already picked up Origami, and was calming her down with silky, encouraging words and reassurance. The alleyway they were in was dim and deserted enough to teleport them immediately, but Kotori still hesitated for a moment.

"Commander? Shall I?" Kannazuke prompted.

She sighed and nodded. "Alright, grab 'em."

He quickly tapped a few buttons on his keyboard, and in a flash, Shido and Origami vanished. The display showed that they had both ended up safely in the teleportation chamber. A few more taps, and they were transmitted to the apartment of Tobiichi. Shido laid Origami down on the bed and felt her head. It was red-hot, but he didn't know whether it was from sickness or her current lack of self-care. Either way, he wouldn't have time to check.

He did, however, perform a quick cursory analysis of her bedroom.

It was neat and tidy, just how he expected it to be, but there was something off about it. It almost felt like it had been neglected. That instead of being used, messed up, but then swiftly and professionally tidied, it just hadn't been used. Shido spared one more glance at her sleeping body and cursed himself. Then, he covered her unconscious body with a blanket and quickly scribbled a note.

After he had left it on her bedside table, he requested to be picked back up. He was relieved that whatever interception signal he had dealt with last time he was here was gone, but he was also acutely scared of the reason to it. He didn't know why.

He was whisked away once more, the familiar white-and-green swirl surrounding him. Soon, he'd end what he started, but not now.

Maybe never.

* * *

Sam hit the ground and skidded on her heels as she came to a halt. She quickly hopped into one of the Aquarium's storage rooms, and closed the door behind her. It was nearly pitch-black, with the only light source coming from Sam herself. She winced inwardly at the bright glow she gave off. _"God, I hope I never have to be stealthy in my approach. This is about as subtle as...well...none of us are really that subtle, are we? I mean, I'm just an oversized rave stick, Tohka's got a huge sword_ _and_ _Kotori's constantly on f-"_

"Sam!"

"Speak of the devil..." Sam muttered.

"We're going to bring your armour back up here, okay? We'll replace it with some more normal clothes. You're hardly inconspicuous right now."

"Oh, you don't say?"

"Sam! Stop messing around!" Kotori shouted.

"Alright, alright, gimme a sec." She held a hand up to her neck and felt for her tracking device. While Shido had a simple earpiece that allowed Ratatoskr to follow his every move and recall him at will, Sam had recently drafted up a significantly more durable (and stylish) design: a silver band, packed to bursting with electronics, that wrapped neatly around the middle of her neck. A 'sapphire' (which was really just a convincing facsimile of one, considering it was actually a high-resolution, polarized camera capable of seeing things even Sam's own eye couldn't) rested comfortably in the center. She set it to just recall her suit.

"Kotori, when you're ready."

"Got it."

In an instant, the room got bitingly chilly as Sam stood there, naked, left to her own devices to fend off the cold. "K-Kotori!"

"Yeah, yeah. One sec."

'One sec' later, Sam was dressed in a black crop-top that showed off slightly more of Sam's midriff than she would have liked and a pair of faded-blue high-waisted jeans. It was topped off with some purple-and-white converse sneakers. She jumped and stretched, less seeing and more feeling the clothes on her body. "I mean, I've seen you pick out worse," she joked.

"Just go to Tohka already!"

Sam nodded, and made her way out of the dark room. Quietly exiting one last door, she made it to the exhibits. Glass containers full of water and aquatic life surrounded her in the eerily-lit area. The walls and ceiling were black, but small, white LEDs punctured the shadows like tiny little stars. Sam weaved through the crowds, trying to find her energetic friend, but so far, she was turning up nothing. "Kotori," she began, talking impossibly quietly, the device around her neck struggling to pick up her voice, "any idea where Tohka is?"

"Actually, it's Kannazuke again, and yes. She's in the largest room, right in the centre. Keep going straight on."

Sam stopped pointlessly looking around and increased her pace, dashing past groups of people in her search. "Tohka? Tohka!" she called out as she quickened even more to a hasty jog. "Tohka? Where are you?" Sam ignored the looks she got from those around her. "Tohka!"

"S-Sam?" a voice questioned from the darkness.

Sam spun on the ball of her foot in the direction of it, and there she was. Tohka Yatogami. Her face painted in sorrow and sadness as she . "Hey, Tohka."

"Where's Shido?" she asked mutedly, her lips barely parting with each word formed.

Sam presented her hand and gestured for Tohka to take it. "Come on, I'll take you to him."

She took it eagerly.

* * *

"Sir! I'm not going to get a better chance than this!" Mana pleaded into the microphone, begging to execute the second part of the plan. "That power is completely gone and I have eyes on all three primary targets, two of which are priority-one, and one of the secondary targets! You have to let me engage! We won't get a better chance than this!"

Mana's outburst wasn't met with any answers, however. At least, not until the voice had fully considered each and every possibility. She was practically shaking to get out there. In fact, the man behind the voice in her ear was rather surprised at the sudden change in tone.

The dreadful silence stretched on and on and on, until he finally spoke.

"Activate the Spacial Quake Alarm. Don't disappoint me, Mana. We've done too much to you."

Mana grinned. "With pleasure."

* * *

"Tohka!" Shido waved at her from behind a chest-high wall, before coming into plain view on the pavement and catching Tohka in his arms as she gleefully jumped at him.

"Shido!" She laughed as she fell into Shido's grasp. She smiled, happy that he was back, but then she broke away and frowned dramatically. "Why were you gone for so long?

Shido made a guilty face and tilted his head, unsure of what to say. "Yeah, my stomach was really terrible. I almost...never mind."

Tohka nodded and regained her smile. She beamed at him, and he beamed back at her.

"Well, this is nice," Sam said to herself.

 **WARNING! THERE HAVE BEEN PRECURSORY SIGNS OF AN IMPENDING SPACIAL QUAKE! PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!**

 **WARNING! THERE HAVE BEEN PRECURSORY SIGNS OF AN IMPENDING SPACIAL QUAKE! PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!**

 **WARNING! THERE HAVE BE-**

"I just had to open my big mouth, didn't I?"


	24. Double Date, Finale

-Chapter 24

Sam crashed through one wall, then the next, and then the next, almost levelling the entire building. Mana's last attack had sent her flying as she tried to amend some misplaced heroism from Shido. It was a valiant attempt, sure, but it would have got him killed if she hadn't intervened.

" _Huh, that pretty much sums us up."_

Colliding with the fourth wall and coming to an abrupt stop, Sam fell onto her hands and knees and desperately heaved long and hard, trying to get some air down to her lungs. It was hampered by all the debris, but after the third time in the last five minutes, Sam had gotten used to mostly just breathing cement dust. On the outside, her armour was dented and battered from the constant assault and her energy reserves were looking far too scarce for her liking. Her ammunition was almost depleted and she was fairly sure her shoulder had been dislocated again.

" _Phew, okay… Take five..."_

"You okay in there, Sammy?"

"Oh, go away!" Greenson retorted.

The voice, at first, sounded like it had come from down the 'tunnel' of scattered bricks and coarse rubble in front of her, but Sam wasn't so naive to think Kurumi would __actually__ give her position away that easily, so she kicked downwards and jumped up into the air. Beneath her and to the side of where she was just moments before, the black-hearted Spirit opened fire into thin air.

 _"_ _ _I've gotta be super careful! They could both turn me into Swiss cheese in a moment if I'm not!"__ Sam landed on the roof of the crumbling building, soon to join the seven others that had already been reduced to nothing but support beams and rock due to the continual battling. It was a three-way stalemate, each side drawing with the other, and it would take a big effort on Sam's part to wrench it into her favour. She leaped higher again, surveying the battlefield in the seconds she had while Mana and Kurumi duked it out in her absence.

The entire street was littered with impact marks, craters and general destruction. A small, twisted thought popped into Sam's head, but she quickly shook it away. __"Yeah, sure, now it looks like there__ _was_ _ _a spacial quake, but this much damage is never a good thing, no matter how convenient."__ She caught a glimpse of Shido and Tohka, sprinting down the street away from the action, finally doing as she had demanded – Sam checked the time in the top-right of her HUD – nine minutes ago when Mana had first attacked. Six minutes ago, Kurumi had stepped in, thrusting her into the current position of fighting a free-for-all and a one-on-two at the same time.

Her jump reached the peak of its height, and as Sam entered free-fall, she fired up her boosters in her legs and aimed herself at Kurumi who was rapidly exchanging blows with Mana. With a sudden shockwave, she careened towards them both, catching Kurumi in the back of the head with her heavy, metallic boot, smashing her into the ground, and then clipping Mana with a wild uppercut.

Tokisaki snarled and fired hastily back at Sam. She barely managed to dodge the burst of fire. The bullets instead collided with Mana's territory. Sparks cascaded upon all three of them as the shots were vaporized at the expense of Mana's shield, but Mana herself stood firm, albeit slightly dazed, and brought her blade down onto Sam.

"I told you you'd die here!" She screamed as swung the brilliant light of her sword.

"Not today!" Sam gritted her teeth and let loose with her gauss cannons, firing off enough shots to force both her assailants back.

However, that move wasn't without consequence, and as she prepared to fire a follow-up shot into the still-recovering Takamiya, she was only met with a disappointing ****click click click****.

"Oh you've gotta be kid-" Sam never got the chance to finish her sentence as she forcefully bit the concrete.

* * *

Kurumi grinned as she drove Samanya's head into the ground, payback for what had happened heartbeats before. Her victory was cut short by Mana, though, who unleashed a frenzy of thin, green lasers at her. Kurumi took off into the noon sky to avoid them, but by using her finger, Mana gave chase, the lasers turning on a dime to keep up.

Nightmare snarled and returned fire, peppering Mana with fast attacks. Her territory mostly ate it up, but that costed precious magical energy, something that was starting to deplete as the fight dragged on. The fight was turning into a war of attrition, and fast. Kurumi was best suited for this, being the only one without a hard limit on her energy supply, but after enough close calls, that advantage had come into question as she somewhat struggled to keep up with the two technologically-superior fighters.

She arced back down towards the broken earth and charged at Mana, both guns still blazing furiously.

"What, you're going to try hitting me with my own lasers? You can't seriously think that would work, right?!" Mana tormented as she stared right through Kurumi's ploy.

However, Kurumi wasn't so foolish to think that actually _would_ work. No, her plan was a little more tricky.

Mana smirked as the Spirit quickly closed the gap between them.

"Come on! Bring it on." She taunted before swiftly stepping to the side.

Big mistake.

Kurumi pitched her flight in that direction at the last second as well _,_ predicting that she'd dodge to her left, and crashed into her, driving her head into the girl's stomach.

She was knocked flat, and with her concentration interrupted, the lasers fizzled out barely an inch from Kurumi's back. Being the first to recover allowed Nightmare to ready a finishing blow.

She aimed her guns at Mana's head as she lay on her back, struggling against the winding Kurumi had inflicted with her stunt. She grimaced up at Kurumi's uncaring eyes, but it was pointless.

 **BANG BANG**

The double-tap echoed off into the cold air, its sound carrying a dread unspoken.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Kurumi spat as she looked down at Mana's twisted expression, pained expression.

She steadied her aim again, determined to finish the job, until suddenly-

Kurumi was launched away from her target, her body rag-dolling as she spun throw the air. Her back stung with the pain of impact, and when she finally got up, she saw Sam grinning at her, the barrel of her gauss cannon smoking.

"Missed me?" She teased, sticking her tongue out and winking.

* * *

 **So, I've had this sitting around for over two months now, so I thought I'd upload it for anyone still reading Samanya's story. A little Christmas gift, I suppose. Anyway, yes, this is it for DAL: SS. I won't see it hasn't been fun, and re-doing it in my new style has been an absolute blast so far, but I can understand how it that might upset some people. Either way, the first chapters of Date A Live: Fractured being are dripping with entirely-new content, including a new character! And yes, in case you missed it, that's what I'm working on now, so please go check it out!**

 **Anyway, as a final, slightly anti-climactic ending to SS, here you go.**

- **Ryan "Kurukaze" McGowan, signing off.**


End file.
